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LALLA ROOKH. 




'Fiercely he broke away; nor stopp'd, 
Nor lookd— but from the lattice dropp'd 
Down mid the pointed crags beneath, 
As if he fled from love to death " 



LALLA ROOKH: 



AN ORIENTAL ROMANCE. 



BT 



THOMAS MOORE 



PHILADELPHIA: 
HENRY CAREY BAIRD, 

(successor to E. L. CAREY,) 
Ko. 7 HARTS BUILDINGS, SIXTH STREET, ABOVE CHESTNUT. 

1856. 






Bequest 

Albert Adait demons 

Aug, 24, 1938 

(Not available for exchange) 



Piinted by T. K & P Q CoV.ias 



TO 



SAMUEL ROGERS, ESQ. 



THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED, 



HIS VERY GRATEFUL 



AND AFFECTIONATE FRIEND, 



THOMAS MOORE. 

May 19, 1817. 



A3 



CONTENTS 



Page 
PREFACE..—~..-^ 13 

THE VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN - - 39 

PARADISE AND THE PERI ^^ 150 

THE FIRE- WORSHIPPERS - — 188 

THE LIGHT OF THE HARAM «,^...,^...«....^ 299 



PREFACE. 



The Poem, or Romance, of Lalla Rookh, having 
now reached, I understand, its twentieth edition, a sliort 
account of the origin and progress of a work which has 
been hitherto so very fortunate in its course, may not be 
deemed, perhaps, superfluous or misplaced. 

It was about tlie year 1812 that, far more through the 
encouraging suggestions of friends than from any confident 
promptings of my own ambition, I conceived the design 
of writing a Poem upon some Oriental subject, and of 
those quarto dimensions which Scott's successful publications 
in that form had then rendered the regular poetical standard. 
A negotiation on the subject was opened with the Messrs. 
Longman, in the same year ; but, from some causes which 
I cannot now recollect, led to no decisive result ; nor 
was it till a year or two after, that any further steps were 
taken in the matter, — their house being the only one, it 
is right to add, with which, from first to last, I held any 
communication upon the subject. 

On this last occasion, Mr. Perry kindly offered himself 
as my representative in the treaty ; and, what Avith the 
friendly zeal of my negotiator on the one side, and the 



14 PREFACE. 



prompt and liberal spirit with which he was met on the 
other, there has seldom, I . think, occurred any transaction 
in which Trade and Poesy have shone out so advanta- 
geously in each other's eyes. The short discussion that 
then took place, between the two parties, may be com 
prised in a very few sentences. " I am of opinion," said 
Mr. Perry, — enforcing his view of the case by arguments 
which it is not for me to cite, — "that Mr. Moore ought 
to receive for his Poem the largest price that has been 
given, in our day, for such a work." "That was," 
answered the Messrs. Longman, "three thousand guineas." 
" Exactly so," replied Mr. Perry, "and no less a sum ought 
he to receive." 

It was then objected, and very reasonably, on the part 
of the firm, that they had never yet seen a single line of 
the Poem ; and that a perusal of the work ought to be 
allowed to them, before they embarked so large a sum in 
the purchase. But, no; — the romantic view which my 
friend. Perry, took of the matter, was, that this price should 
be given as a tribute to reputation already acquired, without 
any condition for a previous perusal of the new work. 
This high tone, I must confess, not a little startled and 
alarmed me; but, to the honour and glory of Romance, — 
as well on the publishers' side as the poet's, — this very 
g-enerous view of the transaction was, without any difficulty, 
acceded to, and the firm agreed, befare we separated, 
that I was to receive three thousand guineas for my Poem. 



PREFACE. 15 



At the time of this agreement, but Httle of the work, 
as it stands at present, had yet been written. But the ready 
confidence of my success shown by others, made up for 
the deficiency of that requisite feeling, within myself, while 
a strong desire not wholly to disappoint this "auguring 
hope," became almost a substitute for inspiration. In the 
year 1815, therefore, having made some progress in my 
task, I wrote to report the state of the work to the Messrs. 
Longman, adding, that I was now most willing and ready, 
should they desire it, to submit the manuscript for their 
consideration. Their answer to this offer was as follows : — 
" We are certainly impatient for the perusal of the Poem ; 
but solely for our gratification. Your sentiments are always 
honourable." * 

I continued to pursue my task for another year, being 
likewise occasionally occupied with the Irish Melodies, 
two or three numbers of which made their appearance, 
during the period employed in writing Lalla Rookh. At 
length, in the year 1816, I found my work sufficiently 
advanced to be placed in the hands of the publishers. 
But the state of distress to which England was reduced, 
in that dismal year, by the exhausting effects of the series 
of wars she had just then concluded, and the general em- 
barrassment of all classes, both agricultural and commercial, 
rendered it a juncture the least favourable that could wel 

» April 10, 1815. 



16 PREFACE. 



be conceived for the first launch into print of so light and 
costly a venture as Lalla Rookh. Feeling conscious, there- 
fore, that, under such circumstances, I should act but 
honestly in putting it in the power of the Messrs. Longman 
to reconsider the terms of their engagement with me, — 
leaving them free to postpone, modify, or even, shoidd such 
be their wish, relinquish it altogether, I wrote them a letter 
to that effect, and received the following answer: — "We 
shall be most happy in the pleasure of seeing you in 
February. We agree with you, indeed, that the times are 
most inauspicious for ' poetry and thousands ;' but we believe 
that your poetry would do more than that of any other living 
poet at tlie present moment." * 

The length of time I employed in writing the few stories 
strung together in Lalla Rookli wiU appear, to some persons, 
much more than was necessary for the production of such 
easy and "light o' love" fictions. But, besides that I have 
been, at all times, a far more slow and painstaking workman 
than would ever be guessed, I fear, from the result, I felt 
that, in this instance, I had talcen upon myself a more than 
ordinary responsibility, from the immense stake risked by 
others on my chance of success. For a long time, therefore, 
after the agreement had been concluded, though generally 
at work with a view to this task, I made but very little real 
progress in it ; and I have still by me the beginnings of 

» November 9, 1816. 



P K E F ACE. 17 



several stories, continued, some of them, to the length of 
three or four hundred lines, which, after in vain endeavouring 
to mould them into shape, I threw aside, like the tale of 
Camhuscan, "left half-told." One of these stories, entitled 
The Peri's Daughter, was meant to relate the loves of a 
nymph of this aerial extraction with a youth of mortal race, 
the rightful Prince of Ormuz, who had been, from his infancy, 
brought up, in seclusion, on the banks of the river Amou, 
by an aged guardian named Mohassan. The story opens 
with the first meeting of these destined lovers, then in 
their childhood ; the Peri having wafted her daughter to 
this holy retreat, in a bright, enchanted boat, whose first 
appearance is thus described : — 



For, down the silvery tide afiir, 
There came a boat, as swift and bright 

As shines, in heaven, some pilgrim-star, 
That leaves its own high home, at night, 
To shoot to distant shrines of light. 

« It comes, it comes," young Orian cries, 
And panting to Mohassan flies. 
Then down upon the flowery grass 
Reclines to see the vision pass ; 
With partly joy and partly fear, 
To find its wondrous Ught so near. 
And liiding oft his dazzled eyes 
Among the flowers on which he lies. 
****** 
Within the hoat a bahy slept, 
Like a young pearl within its shell; 
While one, who seemed of riper years, 
But not of earth, or earthiike spheres, 
Hi'i watch lieside the slumberer kept; 
B 2 



18 PREFACE. 



Gracefully waving, in her hand, 
Tlie feathers of some holy bird, 
With which, from time to time, she stirred 

The fragrant air, and coolly fanned 

The baby's brow, or brushed away 
The butterflies that, bright and blue 

As on the moimtains of Malay, 
Aroimd the sleeping infant flew. 

And now the fairy boat hath stopped 
Beside the bank, — the nymph has dropped 
Her golden anchor in the stream; 



A song is sung by the Peri in approaching, of which the 
following forms a part : — 



My child she is but half divine ; 
Her father sleeps in the Caspian water ; 
Sea-weeds twine 
His funeral shrine. 
But he lives again in the Peri's daughter. 
Fain would I fly fiom mortal sight 

To my own sweet bowers of Peristan 
But there," the flowers are all too bright 
For the eyes of a baby born of man. 
On flowers of earth her feet must tread ; 

So hither my light-winged bark hath brought her ; 
Stranger, spread 
Thy leafiest bed, 
To rest the wandering Peri's daughter. 



In another of these inchoate fragments, a proud female 
saint, named Banou, plays a principal part, and her progress 
through the streets of Cufa, on the night of a great illumi- 
nated festival, I find thus described : — 



P K E r A C E. 19 



It was a scene of mirth that drew 
A smile from even tlie Saint Banou, 
As, through the hushed, admiring throng, 
She went with stately steps along, 
And counted o'er, that all might see, 
The rubies of her rosary. 
But none might see the worldly smile 
That lurked beneath her veil, the while : — 
Alia forbid ! for, who would wait 
Her blessing at the temple's gate, — 
What holy man would ever run 
To kiss the ground she knelt upon, 
If once, by luckless chance, he knew 
She looked and smiled as others dol 
Her hands were joined, and from each wrist 
By tlireads of pearl and golden twist 
Hung relics of the saints of yore, 
And scraps of talismanic lore, — 
Charms for the old, the sick, the frail, 
Some made for use, and all for sale. 
On either side, the crowd withdrew. 
To let the Sauit pass proudly through ; 
While turbaned heads, of every hue. 
Green, white, and crimson, bowed around. 
And gay tiaras touched the gi'ound, — 
As tuhp-bcUs, when o'er their beds 
The musk-wind passes, bend their heads. 
Nay, some there were, among the crowd 
Of Moslem heads that round her bowed. 
So filled with zeal, by many a draught 
Of Shiraz wine profanely quaffed, 
That, sinking low in reverence then. 
They never rose till morn again. 

There are yet two more of these unfinished sketches, one 
of which extends to a much greater length than I was aware 
of- and, as far as I can judge from a hasty renewal of my 
acquaintance with it, it is not incapable of being yet turnec' 
to account. 



2(1 ' PREFACE. 



In only one of these unfinished sketches, the tale of The 
Peri's Daughter, had I yet ventured to invoke that most 
homefelt of all my inspirations, which has lent to the story of 
The Fii'e-worshippers its main attraction and interest. That 
it was my intention, in the concealed Prince of Ormuz, to 
shadow out some impersonation of this feeling, I take for 
granted from the prophetic words supposed to be addressed 
to him by his aged guardian : — 



Bright cliild of destiny ! even now 
I read the promise on that brow, 
That tyrants shall no more defile 
The glories of the Green-Sea Isle, 
But Ormuz shall again be free, 
And hail her native Lord in thee ! 



In none of the other fragments do I find any trace of this 
sort of feeling, either in the subject or the personages of the 
intended story ; and this was the reason, doubtless, though 
hardly known, at the time, to myself, that, finding my subjects 
so slow in kindling my own sympathies, I began to despair 
of their ever touching the hearts of others; and felt often 
inclined to say, 

« O no, I have no voice or hand 
For such a song, in such a land." 

Had this series of disheartening experiments been carried 
on much further, I must have thrown aside the work in 
despair. But, at last, fortunately, as it proved, the thought 
occurred to me of founding a story on the fierce struggle so 



PREFACE. 21 



long maintained between the Ghebers/ or ancient Fire-wor- 
shippers of Persia, and their haughty Moslem masters. From 
that moment, a new and deep interest in my whole task took 
possession of me. The cause of tolerance was again my 
inspiring theme ; and the spirit that had spoken in the melo- 
dies of Ireland soon found itself at home in the East. 

Having thus laid open the secrets of the workshop to 
account for the time expended in loriting this work, I must 
also, in justice to my own industry, notice the pains I took 
in long and laboriously reading for it. To form a store- 
house, as it were, of illustration purely Oriental, and so 
familiarize myself with its various treasures, that, as quick as 
Fancy required the aid of fact, in her spiritings, the memory 
was ready, like another Ariel, at her " strong bidding," to 
furnish materials for the spell-work, — such vras, for a long 
while, the sole object of ray studies ; and whatever time and 
trouble this preparatory process may ha^e cost me, the effects 
resulting from it, as far as the humble merit of truthfulness is 
concerned, have been such as to repay me more than suffi- 
ciently for my pains. I have not forgotten how great was my 
pleasure, when told by the late Sir James Mackintosh, that he 

was once asked by Colonel W s, the historian of British 

India, "whether it was true that Moore had never been m the 
East." "Never," answered Mackintosh. "Well, that 

* Voltaire, in his tragedy of " Les Guebres," written with a similar umle? 
current of meaning, was accused of having transformed his Fire-worshippers 
into Jansenists: — " Quelques figuristes," he says, "pretendent que les Guebies 
sont les Jansenistes." 



22 P R E F A (; E. 



shows me," replied Colonel W s, "that reading over 

D'Herbelot is as good as riding on the back of a camel." 

I need hardly subjoin to this lively speech, that although 
D'Herbelot's valuable work was, of course, one of my ma- 
nuals, I took the whole range of all such Oriental reading as 
was accessible to me ; and became, for the time, indeed, far 
more conversant with all relating to that distant region, than I 
have ever been with the scenery, productions, or modes of life 
of any of those countries lying most within my reach. We 
know that D'Anville, though never in his life out of Paris, 
was able to correct a number of errors in a plan of the Troad 
taken by De Choiseul, on the spot ; and, for my own very 
different, as well as far inferior, purposes, the knowledge I 
had thus acquired of distant localities, seen only by me in my 
day-dreams, was no less ready and useful. 

An ample reward for all this painstaking has been found 
in such welcome tributes as I have just now cited ; nor cnn I 
deny myself the gratification of citing a few more of the same 
description. From another distinguished authority on Eastern 
subjects, the late Sir John Malcolm, I had myself the pleasure 
of hearing a similar opinion publicly expressed ; — that eminent 
person, in a speech spoken by him at a Literary Fund Dinner, 
having remarked, that together with those qualities of the poet 
which he much too partially assigned to me, was combined 
also " the truth of the historian." 

Sir William Ouseley another high authority, in giving his 
testimony to the same effect, thus notices an exception to the 



PREFACE. 23 



general accuracy for which he gives me credit : — " Dazzled by 
the beauties of this composition,* few readers can perceive, 
and none surely can regret, that the poet, in his magnificent 
catastrophe, has forgotten, or boldly and most happily violated, 
the precept of Zoroaster, above noticed, which held it impious 
to consume any portion of a human body by fire, especially by 
that which glowed upon their altars." Having long lost, I fear, 
most of my Eastern learning, I can only cite, in defence of my 
catastrophe, an old Oriental tradition, which relates, that Nim- 
rod, when Abraham refused, at his command, to worship the 
fire, ordered him to be thrown into the midst of the flames." 
A precedent so ancient for this sort of use of the worshipped 
element, would appear, for all purposes at least of poetry, 
fully sufficient. 

In addition to these agreeable testimonies, I have also 
heard, and need hardly add, with some pride and pleasure, 
that parts of this work have been rendered into Persian, and 
have found their way to Ispahan. To this fact, as I am 
willing to think it, allusion is made in some lively verses, 
written many years since, by my friend, Mr. Luttrell : — 

« I'm told, dear Moore, yowc lays are sung, 
(Can it be true, you lucky mani) 
By moonlight, in the Persian tongue, 
Along the streets of Ispahan." 



» The Fire-worshippers. 

•> Tradunt autem HebroBi banc fabulam quod Abraham in ignem missus sit 
quia ignem adorare noluit.-r-ST. Hieuon. in qiutst, in Genesim. 



24 PREFACE. 



That some knowledge of the work may have really reached 
that region, appears not improbable from a passage in the 
Travels of Mr. Frazer, who says, that "being delayed for 
some time at a town on the shores 'of the Caspian, he was 
lucky enough to be able to amuse himself with a copy of 
Lalla Rookh, which a Persian had lent him." 

Of the description of Balbec, in " Paradise and the Peri," 
Mr. Came, in his Letters from the East, thus speaks : " The 
description in Lalla Rookh of the plain and its ruins is 
exquisitely faitliful. The minaret is on the declivity near at 
hand, and there wanted only the muezzin's cry to break 
the silence." 

I shall now tax my reader's patience with but one more 
of these generous vouchers. Whatever of vanity there may 
be in citing such tributes, they show, at least, of what great 
value, even in poetry, is that prosaic quality, industry ; 
since, as the reader of the foregoing pages is now fully ap- 
prized, it was in a slow and laborious collection of small 
facts, that the first foundations of this fanciful Romance 
were laid. 

The friendly testimony I have just referred to, appeared, 
some years since, in the form in which I now give it, and, 
if I recollect right, in the Athenaeum : — 

"I embrace this opportunity of beaiing my individual 
testimony (if it be of any value) to the extraordinary accuracy 
of Mr. Moore, m his topographical, antiquarian, and charac- 



PREFACE. 35 



teristic details, whether of costume, manners, or less-changing 
monuments, both in his Lalla Rookh and in the Epicurean. 
It has been my fortune to read his Atlantic, Bermudean, and 
American Odes and Epistles, in the countries and among the 
people to which and to whom they related ; 1 enjoyed also 
the exquisite delight of reading his Lalla Rookh, in Persia 
itself; and I have perused the Epicurean, while all my recol- 
lections of Egypt and its still existing wonders are as fresh as 
when I quitted the banks of the Nile for Arabia ; — I owe it, 
therefore, as a debt of gratitude, (though the payment is most 
inadequate,) for the great pleasure I have derived from his 
productions, to bear my humble testimony to their local 
fidelity. J. S. B." 

Among the incidents connected with this work, I must 
not omit to notice the splendid Divertissement, founded upon 
it, which was acted at the Chateau Royal of Berlin, during 
the visit of the Grand Duke Nicholas to that capital, in the 
year 1822. The different stories composing the work were 
represented in Tableaux Vivans and songs ; and among the 
crowd of royal and noble personages engaged in the per- 
formances, I shall mention those only who represented the 
principal characters, and whom I find thus enumerated in the 
published account of the Divertissement." 



a Lalla Roukh, Divertissement mele de Chants et de Danses, Berlin, J 822. 
The work contains a series of coloured engravings, representing groups, pro- 
cessions, &c., in different Oriental costumes. 

C 



5J6 PREFACE. 



« Fadladin, Grand-Nasir, . . . Comte Haack, (^Marechal de Cour.) 

Aliris, Roi de Bucharie, ... S.A.I. Lc Grand Due. 

Lallah Roukh, S.A.I.La Grand Duchesse. 

Aurungzeb, le Grand Mogol, . S. A. R. Le Prince Guillaume, frere du Roi, 

Abdallah, Pere d' Aliris, . . . S.A.R. Le Due de Cumberland. 

La Reine, son epouse, ... S. A. R. La Princesse Louise Radzivill." 



Besides these and other leading personages, there were 
also brought into action, under the various denominations 
of Seigneurs et Dames de Bucharie, Dames de Cachemire, 
Seigneurs et Dames dansans a la Fete des Roses, &c., nearly 
one hundred and fifty persons. 

Of the manner and style in which the Tableaux of the 
different stories are described in the work from which I cite, 
the following account of the performance of Paradise and the 
Peri will afford some specimen : — 

" La decoration repr6sentoit les portes brillantes du 
Paradis, entourees de nuages. Dans le premier tableau on 
voyoit la Peri, triste et desolee, couchee sur le seuil des portes 
fermees, et I'Ange de lumiere qui lui adresse des consolations 
et des conseils. Le second repr^sente le moment, ou la Peri, 
dans I'espoir que ce don lui ouvrira I'entree du Paradis 
recueille la derniere goutte de sang que vient de verser le 
jeune guerrier Indien 

" La Peri et I'Ange de lumiere repondoient pleinement a 
I'image et a l'id6e qu'on est tente de se fa ire de ces deux 
individus, et I'impression qu'a faite generalement la suite des 
tableaux de, cet episode delicat et interessant est loin de 
s'effacer de notre souvenir." 



PREFACE. 27 

In this grand Fete it appears, originated the translation 
of Lalla Rookh into German verse, by the Baron de la Motte 
Fouque ; and the circumstances which led him to undertake 
the task, are described by himself, in a Dedicatory Poem to 
the Empress of Russia, which he has prefixed to his transla- 
tion. As soon as the performance, he tells us, had ended, 
Lalla Rookh (the Empress herself) exclaimed, with a sigh, 
"Is it, then, all over? are we now at the close of all that has 
given us so much delight ? and lives there no poet who will 
impart to others, and to future times, some notion of the 
happiness we have enjoyed this evening?" On hearing this 
appeal, the Knight of Cashmere (who is no other than the 
poetical Baron himself) comes forward and promises to 
attempt to present to the world "the Poem itself in the 
measure of the original:" — whereupon Lalla Rookli, it is 
added, approvingly smUed. 



LALLA EOOKH. 



In the eleventh year of the reign of Aurungzebe, Abdalla, 
K Jg of the Lesser Bucharia, a lineal descendant from the 
G^'eat Zingis, having abdicated the throne in favour of his son, 
set out on a pilgrimage to the Shrine of the Prophet ; and, 
passing into India through the delightful valley of Cashmere, 
rested for a short time at Delhi on his way. He was enter- 
tained by Aurungzebe m a style of magnificent hospitality, 
worthy alike of the visiter and the host, and was afterwards 
escorted with the same splendour to Surat, where he embarked 
for Arabia.* During the stay of the Royal Pilgrim at Delhi, a 
marriage was agreed upon between the Prince, his son, and 
the youngest daughter of the Emperor, Lalla Rookh j'' — a 
Princess described by the poets of her time as more beautiful 



» These particulars of the visit of the King of Bucharia to Aurungzebe are 
found in Dotes History of Hindostan, vol. iii. p. 392. 
*> Tulip cheek. 

c 2 29 



30 LALLAROOKH. 



than Leila,* Shirine," Dewilde," or any of those heroines whose 
names and loves embellish the songs of Persia and Hindostan. 
It was intended that the nuptials should be celebrated at 
Cashmere ; where the young King, as soon as the cares of 
empire would permit, was to meet, for the first time, his lovely 
bride, and, after a few months' repose in that enchanting 
valley, conduct her over the snowy hills into Bucharia. 

The day of Lalla Rookh's departure from Delhi was as 
splendid as sunshine and pageantry could make it. The 
bazaars and baths were all covered with the richest tapestry ; 
hundreds of gilded barges upon the Jumna floated with their 
banners shining in the water ; while through the streets groups 
of beautiful children went strewing the most delicious flowers 
around, as in that Persian festival called the Scattering of the 
Roses f till every part of the city was as fragrant as if a 
caravan of musk from Khoten had passed through it. The 
Princess, having taken leave of her kind father, who at parting 
hung a cornelian of Yemen round her neck, on which was 
inscribed a verse from the Koran, and having sent a consider- 
able present to the Fakirs, who kept up the Perpetual Lamp 
in her sister's tomb, meekly ascended the palankeen prepared 

* The mistress of Mejnoun, upon whose story so many Romances in all the 
languages of the East are founded. 

»> For the loves of this celebrated beauty with Khosrou and with Ferhad, see 
D' Herbelot, Gibbon, Oriental Collections, &c. 

<= " The history of the loves of Dewilde and Chizer, the son of the Emperor 
Alia, is written in an elegant poem, by the noble Chusero." — Ferishta. 

^ Gul Reazee. 



LALLAROOKH. 31 



for her ; and, while Aurungzebe stood to take a last look from 
his balcony, tlie procession moved slowly on the road to 
Lahore. 

Seldom had the Eastern world seen a cavalcade so superb. 
From the gardens in the suburbs to the Imperial palace, it 
was one unbroken line of splendour. The gallant appearance 
of the Rajahs and Mogul lords, distinguished by those insignia 
of the Emperor's favour,* the feathers of the egret of Cash- 
mere, in their turbans, and the small silver-rimmed kettle-drums 
at the bows of their saddles ; — the costly armour of their cava- 
liers, who vied, on this occasion, with the guards of the great 
Keder lOian,*" in the brightness of their silver battle-axes and 
the massiness of their maces of gold ; — the glittering of the gilt 
pine-apples° on the tops of the palanlceens ; — tlie embroidered 



* " One mark of honour or knighthood bestowed by the Emperor is the 
permission to wear a small kettle-drum at the bows of their saddles, which at 
first was invented for the training of hawks, and to call them to the lure, and is 
worn in the field by all sportsmen to that end." — Fryer's Travels. 

" Those on whom the King has conferred the privilege must wear an orna- 
ment of jewels on the right side of the turban, surmounted by a high plume of 
the feathers of a kind of egret. This bird is found only in Cashmere, and the 
feathers are carefully collected for the King, who bestows them on his nobles." — 
Elphitistone' s Account of Caubul. 

*> " Khedar Khan, the Khakan, or King of Turqucstan beyond the Gihon, 
(at the end of the eleventh century,) whenever he appeared abroad, was pre- 
ceded by seven hundred horsemen with silver battle-axes, and was followed by an 
equal number bearing maces of gold. He was a great patron of poetry, and it 
was he who used to preside at public exercises of genius, with four basins of 
gold and silver by him to distribute among the poets who excelled." — Richard- 
son's Dissertation prefixed to his Dictionary. 

' " The kubdeh, a large golden knob, generally in the shape of a pine-apple, 



32 LALLA ROOKH. 



trappings of the elephants, bearing on their backs small turrets, 
in the shape of little antique temples, witliin which the Ladies 
of Lalla Rookh lay as it were enshrined ; — the rose-coloured 
veils of the Princess's own sumptuous litter," at the front of 
which a fair young female slave sat fanning her through 
the curtains, with feathers of the Argus pheasant's wing ;" — 
and the lovely troop of Tartarian and Cashmerian maids of 
honour, whom the young King had sent to accompany his 
bride, and who rode on each side of the litter, upon small 
Arabian horses; — all was brilliant, tasteful, and magnificent, 
and pleased even the critical and fastidious Fadladeen, 
Great Nazir or Chamberlain of the Haram, who was borne 
in his palankeen immediately after the Princess, and con- 
sidered himself not the least important personage of the 
pageant. 

Fadladeen was a judge of every thing, — from the pencil- 
ling of a Circassian's eyelids to the deepest questions of 

on the top of the canopy over the litter or palanquin." — Scott's Notes on the 
Bahardanush. 

a In the Poem of Zohair, in the Moallakat, there is the following lively de- 
scription of " a company of maidens seated on camels." 

"They are moimted m carriages covered with costly awnings, and with 
rose-coloured veils, the Imings of which have the hue of crimson Andem- 
wood. 

« When they ascend from the bosom of the vale, they sit forward on the 
Baddle-cloth, with every mark of a voluptuous gayety. 

" Now, when they have reached the brink of yon blue-gushing rivulet, they 
fix the poles of their tents like the Arab with a settled mansion.' 

^ See Bernier's description of the attendants on Rauchanara-Begum, in hei 
progress to Cashmere. 



LALLA ROOKH. 33 

science and literature ; from the mixture of a conserve of rose- 
leaves to the composition of an epic poem : and such influence 
had his opinion upon tlie various tastes of the day, that all 
the cooks and poets of Delhi stood in awe of him. His 
political conduct and opinions were founded upon that line 
of Sadi, — " Should the Prince at noonday say, It is night, 
declare that you behold the moon and stars." — And his zeal 
for religion, of which Aurungzebe was a magnificent pro- 
tector,* was about as disinterested as that of the goldsmith 
who fell in love with the diamond eyes of the idol of 
Jaghernaut." 

During the first days of their journey, Lalla Rookh, 
who had passed all her life within the shadow of the Royal 
Gardens of Delhi," found enough in the beauty of the scenery 



* This hypocritical Emperor would have made a worthy associate of certain 
Holy Leagues. — « He held the cloak of religion (says Dow) between his actions 
and the vulgar; and impiously thanked the Divinity for a success which he owed 
to his own wickedness. When he was murdering and persecuting his brothers 
and their families, he was building a magnificent mosque at Delhi, as an offer- 
ing to God for his assistance to him in the civil wars. He acted as high priest 
at the consecration of this temple ; and made a practice of attending divine 
service there, in the humble dress of a Fakeer. But when he lifted one hand 
to the Divinity, he, with the other, signed warrants for the assassination of his 
relations." — History of Hindostan, vol. iii. p. 335. See also the curious letter 
of Aurungzebe, given in the Oriental Collections, vol. i. p. 320. 

•> " The idol at Jaghernat has two fine diamonds for eyes. No goldsmith is 
suffered to enter the Pagoda, one having stole one of these eyes, being locked 
up all night with the idol." — Tavcrnier. 

' See a description of these royal Gardens in "An account of the present 
State of Delhi, by Lieutenant W. Franklin."— .^sia^ Research, vol. iv. n. 
417. 



34 LALLAROOKH. 

through which they passed to interest her mind, and delight 
her imagination j and when at evening, or in the heat of the 
day, they turned off from the high road to those retired and 
romantic places which had been selected for her encamp- 
ments, sometimes on the banks of a small rivulet, as clear 
as the waters of the Lake of Pearl ; * sometimes under the 
sacred shade of a Banyan tree, from which the view opened 
upon a glade covered with antelopes ; and often in those 
hidden, embowered spots, described by one from the Isles 
of the West,* as places of melancholy, dehght, and safety, 
where all the company around was wild peacocks and turtle- 
doves; — she felt a charm in these scenes, so lovely and so 
new to her, which, for a time, made her indifferent to every 
other amusement. But Lalla Rookh was young, and the 
young love variety ; nor could the conversation of her Ladies 
and the Great Chamberlain Fadladeen, (the only persons, 
of course, admitted to her pavilion,) sufficiently enliven those 
many vacant hours, which were devoted neither to the 
pillow nor the palankeen. There was a little Persian slave 
who sung sweetly to the Vina, and who, now and then, 
lulled the Princess to sleep with the ancient ditties of her 



* " In the neighbourhood is Notte Gill, or the Lalce of Pearl, which receives 
this name from its pellucid water." — Pennant's Hindostan. 

"Nasir Jung, encamped in the vicinity of the Lake of Tonoor, amused 
liimself with sailing on that clear and beautiful water, and gave it the fanciful 
name of Motee Talah, 'the Lake of Pearls,' which it still retains." — Willcs's 
South of India. 

'' Sir Thomas Roe, Ambassador from James I. to Jehanguire. 



L A L L A R O O K H. 35 



country, about the loves of Wamak and Ezra,"* the fair- 
haired Zal and his mistress Rodahver," not forgetting the 
combat of Rustam with the terrible White Demon.'' At 
other times she was amused by those graceful dancing-girls 
of Delhi, who had been permitted by the Bramins of the 
Great Pagoda to attend her, much to the horror of the good 
Mussulman Fadladeen, who could see nothing graceful or 
agreeable in idolaters, and to whom the very tinkling of tlieir 
golden anklets * was an abomination. 



* "The romance Wemakweazra, written in Persian verse, which contains 
the loves of Wamak and Ezra, two celebrated lovers who lived before the time 
of Mahomet." — Note on the Oriental Tales. 

^ Their amour is recounted in the Shah-Nameh of Ferdousi ; and there is 
much beauty in the passage which describes the slaves of Rodahver sitting on 
the bank of the river and throwing flowers into the stream, in order to draw 
the attention of the young Hero who is encamped on the opposite side. — See 
Champion's translation. 

<= Rustam is the Hercules of the Persians. For the particulars of his vic- 
tory over the Sepeed Deeve, or White Demon, see Oriental Collections, vol. ii. 
p. 45. — Near the city of ShLrauz is an immense quadrangular monument, in 
commemoration of this combat, called the Kelaat-i-Deev Sepeed, or Castle 
of the White Giant, which Father Angelo, in his Gazophilacium Persicum, 
p. 127, declares to have been the most memorable monument of antiquity 
which he had seen in Persia. — See Ouseley's Persian Miscellanies. 

d « The women of the Idol, or dancing-girls of the Pagoda, have little 
golden bells, fastened to their feet, the soft, harmonious tinkling of which 
vibrates in unison with the exquisite melody of their voices," — Maurice's 
Indian Antiquities. 

" The Arabian courtesans, like the Indian women, have little golden bells 
fastened round their legs, neck, and elbows, to the sound of which they 
dance before the King. The Arabian princesses wear golden rings on their 
fingers, to which little bells are suspended, as well as in the flowing tresses 
of their hair, that their superior rank may be known, and they themselves 
receive in passing the homage due to them." — See Calmel's Dictionary 
art. Bells. 



36 LALLAROOKH. 

But these and many other diversions were repeated till 
they lost all their charm, and the nights and noondays were 
beginning to move heavily, when, at length, it was recol- 
lected that, among tlie attendants sent by the bridegroom, 
was a young poet of Cashmere, much celebrated throughout 
the Valley for his manner of reciting the Stories of the East, 
on whom his Royal Master had conferred the privilege of 
being admitted to the pavilion of the Princess, that he might 
help to beguile the tediousness of the journey, by some 
of his most agreeable recitals. At the mention of a poet, 
Fadladeen elevated his critical eyebrows, and, having re- 
freshed his faculties with a dose of that delicious opium" 
which is distilled from the black poppy of the Thebais, gave 
orders for the minstrel to be forthwith introduced into the 
presence. 

The Princess, who had once in her life seen a ■ poet 
from behind the screens of gauze in her Father's hall, and 
had conceived from that specimen no very favourable ideas 
of the Caste, expected but little in this new exliibition to 
interest her ; — she felt inclined, however, to alter her opinion 
on the very first appearance of Feramorz. He was a youth 
about Lalla Eookh's own age, and graceful as that idol 
of women, Crishna,^ — such as he appears to their young 



* " Abou-Tige, ville de la Thebaide, ou il croit bcaucoup de pavot noir, 
dont se fait le meilleur opium." — D^Hcrbelot. 

^ The Indian Apollo. — " He and the three Rumas arc descrilied as youllis 



LALLAROOKH. 37 

imaginations, heroic, beautiful, breathing music from his 
very eyes, and exalting the religion of his worshippers into 
love. His dress was simple, yet not without some marks 
of costliness ; and the Ladies of the Princess were not long 
in discovering that the cloth, which encircled his high Tar- 
tarian cap, was of the most delicate kind that the shawl-goats 
of Tibet supply.* Here and there, too, over his vest, which 
was confined by a flowered girdle of Kashan, hung strings 
of fine pearl, disposed with an air of studied negligence ; — 
nor did the exquisite embroidery of his sandals escape 
the observation of these fair critics ; who, however they 
might give way to Fadladeen upon the unimportant topics 
of religion and government, had the spirit of martyrs in 
every thing relating to such momentous matters as jewels 
and embroidery. 

For the purpose of relieving the pauses of recitation by 
music, the young Cashmerian held in his hand a kitar; — 
such as, in old times, the Arab maids of the West used 
to listen to by moonlight in the gardens of the Alhambra — 
and, having premised, with much humility, that the story 
he was about to relate was founded on the adventures of 



of perfect beauty ; and the princesses of Hindustan were all passionately in love 
with Crishna, who continues to this hour the darling God of the Indian 
women." — Sir W. Jones, on the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India. 

* See Turner's Embassy for a description of this animal, " the most beautiful 
among the whole tribe of goats." The material for the shawls (which is car- 
ried to Cashmere) is found next the skin. 

D 



38 L A L L A K O K H, 

that Veiled Prophet of KDiorassan,* who, in the year of the 
Hegira 163, created such alarm throughout the Eastern Em- 
pire, made an obeisance to the Princess, and thus began: 



» For the real history of this Impostor, whose original name was Hal-em 
ben Haschem, and who was called Mocanna from the veil of silver gauze (or, 
as others say, golden) which he always v/orc, see D^Hcrbeht. 



THE 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 



In that delightful Province of the Sun, 
The first of Persian lands he shines upon, 
Where all the loveliest children of his beam. 
Flowerets and fruits, blush over every stream,'' 
And, fairest of all streams, the Murga roves 
Among Merou's " bright palaces and groves ; — 
There on that throne, to which the blind belief 
Of millions raised him, sat the Prophet-Chief, 
The Great Mokanna. O'er his features hung 
The Veil, the Silver Veil, which he had flung 
In mercy there, to hide from mortal sight 
His dazzling brow, till man could bear its light. 
For, far less luminous, his votaries said. 
Were ev'n the gleams, miraculously shed 



* Khorassan signifies, in the old Persian language, Province or Region of 
the Sun. — Sir W. Jones. 

^ " The fruits of Meru are finer than those of any other place ; and one 
cannot see in any other city such palaces, with groves, and streams, and 
gardens." — Ebn HaukaVs Geography. 

' One of the royal cities of Khorassan. 



40 LALLAROOKH, 

O'er Moussa's" cheek/ when down the Mount he trod, 
All glowing from the presence of his God ! 

On either side, with ready hearts and hands. 
His chosen guard of bold Believers stands ; 
Young fire-eyed disputants, who deem their swords, 
On points of faith, more eloquent than words ; 
And such their zeal, there's not a youth with brand 
Uplifted there, but, at the Chief's command, 
Would make his own devoted heart its sheath, 
And bless the lips that doomed so dear a death ! 
In hatred to the Caliph's hue of night," 
Their vesture, helms and all, is sno\vy white ; 
Their weapons various — some equipped, for speed, 
With javelins of the light Kathaian reed ; ■* 
Or bows of buffalo-horn and shining quivers 
Filled with the stems ^ that bloom on Iran's rivers ; ^ 



» Moses. 

•> " Ses disciples assuroient qu'il se couvroit le visage, pour ne pas eblouir 
ceux qui I'approchoient par I'eclat de son visage comme Moyse." — D'Hcrbdot. 

*= Black was the colour adopted by the Caliphs of the House of Abbas, in 
their garments, turbans, and standards. — "II faut remarquer ici touchant les 
habits blancs des disciples de Hakem, que la couleur des habits, des coeffures et 
des etendarts des Khalifes Abassides etant la noire, ce chef de Rebelles ne pou- 
voit pas choisir une qui lui fut plus opposee." — D'HerhcIot. 

^ " Our dark javelins, exquisitely wrought of Khathaian reeds, slender and 
delicate." — Poem of Amru. 

* Pichula, used anciently for arrows by the Persians. 

f The Persians call this plant Gaz. The celebrated shaft of Isfendiar, one 
of their ancient heroes, was made of it. — « Nothing can be more beautiful than 
the appearance of tliis plant in flower during the rains on the banks of rivers, 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 41 

While some, for war's more terrible attacks, 
Wield the huge mace and ponderous battle-axe ; 
And as they wave aloft in morning's beam 
The milk-white plumage of their helms, they seem 
Like a chenar-tree grove " when winter throws 
O'er all its tufted heads his feathering snows. 

Between the porphyry pillars, that uphold 
The rich raoresque-work of the roof of gold. 
Aloft the Haram's curtained galleries rise. 
Where through the silken network, glancing eyes. 
From time to time, like sudden gleams that glow 
Through autumn clouds, shine o'er the pomp below. — 
What impious tongue, ye blushing saints, would dare 
To hint that aught but Heaven hath placed you there ? 
Or that the loves of this light world could bind. 
In their gross chain, your Prophet's soaring mind ? 
No — wrongful thought ! — commissioned from above 
To people Eden's bowers with shapes of love, 
(Creatures so bright, that the same lips and eyes 
They wear on earth will serve in Paradise,) 
There to recline among Heaven's native maids. 
And crown th' Elect with bliss that never fades — 



where it is usually interwoven with a lovely twining asclepias." — Sir W. Jones, 
Botanical Observations on Select Indian Plants. 

a The oriental plane. " The chenar is a delightful tree ; its bole is of a fine 
white and smooth bark ; and its foliage, which grows in a tuft at the summit 
is of a bright green." — Morier's Travels. 



43 LALLAROOKH. 

Well hath the Prophet-Chief his bidding done ; 

And every beauteous race beneath the sun, 

From those who kneel at Brahma.'s burning founts,* 

To the fresh nymphs bounding o'er Yemen's mounts ; 

From Persia's eyes of full and fawn-like ray. 

To the small, half-shut glances of ICathay : " 

And Georgia's bloom, and Azab's darker smiles, 

And the gold ringlets of the Western Isles ; 

All, all are there ; — each Land its flower hath given, 

To form that fair young Nursery for Heaven ! 



But why this pageant now ? tliis armed array ? 
What triumph crowds the rich Divan to-day 
With turbaned heads, of every hue and race. 
Bowing before that veiled and awful face. 
Like tulip-beds,'' of different shape and dyes, 
Bending beneath th' invisible West-wind's sighs . 
What new-made mystery now, for Faith to sign, 
And blood to seal, as genuine and divine. 
What dazzling mimicry of God's own power 
Hath the bold Prophet planned to grace this hour ? 



a The burning fountains of Brahma near Chittogong, esteemed as holy. — 
Turner. 

» China. 

« " The name of tulip is said to be of Turkish extraction, and given to the 
flower on account of its resembling a turban." — Beckmanu's History of In 
ventions. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 43 

Not such the pageant now, though not less proud ; 
Yon warrior youth, advancing from the crowd, 
With silver bow, with belt of broidered crape, 
And fur-bound bonnet of Bucharian shape,'' 
So fiercely beautiful in form and eye. 
Like war's wild planet in a summer sky ; 
That youth to day, — a proselyte, worth hordes 
Of cooler spirits and less practised swords, — 
Is come to join, all bravery and belief. 
The creed and standard of the heaven-sent Chief. 

Though few his years, the West already knows 
Young Azim's fame ; — beyond th' Olympian snows, 
Ere manhood darkened o'er his downy cheek, 
O'erwhelmed in fight and captive to the Greek," 
He lingered there, till peace dissolved his chains ; — 
0, who could, even in bondage, tread the plains 
Of glorious Greece, nor feel his spirit rise 
Kindling within him ? who, with heart and eyes, 
Could walk where Liberty had been, nor see 
The shining footprints of her Deity, 
Nor feel those godlike breathings in the air. 
Which mutely told her spirit had been there ? 

a " The inhabitants of Bucharia wear a round cloth bonnet, shaped much 
after the Polish fashion, having a large fur border. They tie their kaftans about 
the middle with a girdle of a kind of silk crape, several times round the b«dy." — ■ 
Account of Independent Tartaiy, in Pinkerlons Collection. 

^ In the war of the Caliph Mahadi against the Emperor Iicne, for an account 
of which vide Gibbon, vol. x. 



44 LALLAROOKH. 

Not he, that youthful warrior, — no, too well 

For his soul's quiet worked the awakening spell ; 

And now, returning to his own dear land. 

Full of those dreams of good tliat, vainly grand. 

Haunt the young heart, — proud views of human-kind, 

Of men to Gods exalted and refined, — 

False views, like that horizon's fair deceit. 

Where earth and heaven but seem, alas, to meet ! — 

Soon as he heard an Arm Divine was raised 

To right the nations, and beheld, emblazed 

On the white flag Mokanna's host unfurled. 

Those .words of sunshine, "Freedom to the World," 

At once his faith, his sword, his soul obeyed 

Th' inspiring summons ; every chosen blade 

That fought beneath that banner's sacred text 

Seemed doubly edged, for this world and the next • 

And ne'er did Faith with her smooth bandage bind 

Eyes more devoutly willing to be blind. 

In virtue's cause ; — never was soul inspired 

With livelier trust in what it most desired. 

Than his, th' enthusiast there, who kneeling, pale 

With pious awe, before that Silver Veil, 

Beheves the form, to which he bends his knee, 

Some pure, redeeming angel, sent to free 

This fettered world from every bond and stain, 

And bring its primal glories back again! 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 45 

Low as young Azim knelt, that motley crowd 
Of all earth's nations sunk the knee and bowed, 
With shouts of "Alla !" echoing long and loud ; 
While high in air, above the Prophet's head, 
Hundreds of banners, to the sunbeam spread, 
Waved, like the wings of the white birds that fan 
The flying throne of star-taught Soliman." 
Then thus he spoke : — " Stranger, though new the frame 
" Thy soul inhabits now, I've tracked its flame 
" For many an age," in every chance and change 
" Of that existence, through whose varied range, — 
"As through a torch-race, where, from hand to hand, 
" The flying youths transmit their shining brand, — 
" From frame to frame the unextinguished soul 
" Rapidly passes, till it reach the goal! 

" Nor think 'tis only the gross Spirits, warmed 
" With duskier fire and for earth's medium formed. 



* This wonderful Throne was called The Star of the Genii. For a full de- 
scription of it, see the Fragment, translated by Captain Franklin, from a Persian 
MS, entitled « The History of Jerusalem," Oriental Collections, vol. i. p. 235. — 
When Soliman travelled, the Eastern writers say, "He had a carpet of green 
silk on which his throne was placed, being of a prodigious length and breadth, 
and sufficient for all his forces to stand upon, the men placing themselves on his 
right hand, and the spirits on his left; and that when all were in order, the 
wind, at his command, took up the carpet, and transported it, with all that were 
upon it, wherever he pleased ; the army of birds at the same time flying ovei 
their heads, and forming a kind of canopy to shade them from the sun." — Sale's 
Koran, vol. ii. p. 214, note. 

^ The transmigration of souls was one of his doctrines. Vide D'Hcrhelot. 



46 LALLAROOKH. 

" That run this course ; — Beings, the most divine, 
" Thus deign through dark mortaUty to shine. 
" Such was the Essence that in Adam dwelt, 
•" To which all Heaven, except the Proud One, knelt :* 
" Such the refined Intelligence that glowed 
"In Moussa's* frame, — and, thence descending, flowed 
" Through many a Prophet's breast ; " — in Issa* shone, 
<' And in Mohammed burned; till, hastening on, 
" (As a bright river, that from fall to fall 
" In many a maze descending, bright through all, 
"Finds some fair region where, each labyrinth past, 
" In one full lake of light it rests at last,) 
" That Holy Spirit, settling calm and free 
"From lapse or shadow, centres all in me!" 

Again, throughout th' assembly, at these words, 
Thousands of voices rung : the warriors' swords 
Were pointed up to heaven : a sudden wind 
In th' open banners played, and from behind 

*«And when we said unto the angels, Worship Adam, they all worshipped 
him except Eblis, (Lucifer,) who refused." The Koran, chap. ii. 

'' Moses. 

"= This is according to D'Herbelot's account of the doctrines of Mokanna : — 
« Sa doctrine etoit, que Dieu avoit pris une forme et figure humaine, depuis 
qu'il eut commande aux Anges d'adorer Adam, le premier des hommes. 
Qu'apres la mort d'Adam, Dieu etoit apparu sous la figure de plusieurs Pro- 
phetes, et autres grands hormnes qu'il avoit choises, jusqu'a ce qu'il prit celle 
d'Abu Moslem, Prince de Khorassan, lequel professoit I'erreur de la Tenas- 
sukhiah ou Metempsychose ; et qu'apres la mort de ce Prince, la Divinity 
6toit passee, et descehdue en sa personne." 

"J Jesus. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 47 

Those Persian hangings, tliat but ill could screen 
The Haram's loveliness, white hands were seen 
Waving embroidered scarves, whose motion gave 
A perfume forth — like those the Houris wave 
When beckoning to their bowers th' immortal Brave. 



"But these," pursued the Chief, "are truths sublime, 
" That claim a holier mood and calmer time 
" Than earth allows us now; — this sword must first 
'' The darkling prison-house of Mankind burst, 
"Ere Peace can visit them, or Truth let in 
" Her wakening daylight on a world of sin. 
"But then, — celestial warriors, then, when all 
"Earth's shrines and thrones before our banner fall; 
" When the glad Slave shall at these feet lay down 
" His broken chain, the tyrant Lord his crown, 
" The Priest his book, the Conqueror his wreath, 
" And from the lips of Truth one mighty breath 
" Shall, like a whirlwind, scatter in its breeze 
" That whole dark pile of human mockeries : — 
" Then shall the reign of mind commence on earth, 
" And starting fresh as from a second birth, 
"Man, in the sunshine of the world's new spring, 
" Shall walk transparent, like some holy thing! 
" Then, too, your Prophet from his angel brow 
" Shall cast the Veil that hides its splendours now. 



48 L A L L A R O K H. 

" And gladdened Earth shall, through her wide expanse, 
' Bask in the glories of this countenance ! 

" For thee, young warrior, welcome ! — thou hast yet 
" Some tasks to learn, some frailties to forget, 
"Ere the white war-plume o'er thy brow can wave; — 
"But, once my own, mine all till in the grave !" 

The pomp is at an end — the crowds are gone — 
Each ear and heart still haunted by the tone 
Of that deep voice, which thrilled like Alla's own ! 
The Young all dazzled by the plumes and lances. 
The glittering throne, and Haram's half-caught glances ; 
The Old deep pondering on the promised reign 
Of peace and truth ; and all the female train 
Ready to risk their eyes, could they but gaze 
A moment on that brow's miraculous blaze ! 

But there was one, among the chosen maids, 
Who blushed behind the gallery's sUken shades, 
One, to whose soul the pageant of to-day 
Has been like death ! — you saw her pale dismay, 
Ye wondering sisterhood, and heard the burst 
Of exclamation from her lips, when first 
She saw that youth, too well, too dearly known, 
Silently kneeling at the Prophet's throne. 



I 
VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 49 

Ah Zelica ! there was a time, when bhss 
Shone o'er thy heart from every look of his ; 
When but to see him, hear him, breathe the air, 
In which he dwelt, was thy soul's fondest prayer ; 
When round him hung such a perpetual spell, 
Whate'er he did, none ever did so well. 
Too happy days ! when, if he touched a flower 
Or gem of thine, 'twas sacred from that hour ; 
When thou didst study him till every tone 
And gesture and dear look becatne thy own, — 
Thy voice like his, the changes of his face 
In thine reflected with still lovelier grace. 
Like echo, sending back sweet music, fraught 
With twice th' aerial sweetness it had brought ! 
Yet now he comes, — brighter than even he 
E'er beamed before, — but, ah ! not bright for thee , 
No — dread, unlooked for, like a visitant 
From th' other world, he comes as if to haunt 
Thy guilty soul with dreams of lost delight. 
Long lost to all but memory's aching sight ; — 
Sad dreams ! as when the Spirit of our Youth 
Returns in sleep, sparkling with all the truth 
i^nd innocence once ours, and leads us back, 
In mournful mockery, o'er the shining track 
Of our young life, and points out every ray 
Of hope and peace we've lost upon the way ! 



50 L A L L A R O O K H. 

Once happy pair ! — In proud Bokhara's groves, 
Who had not heard of their first youthful loves ? 
Born by that ancient flood,* which from its spring 
In the Dark Mountains swiftly w^andering, 
Enriched by every pilgrim brook that shines 
With relics from Bucharia's ruby mines, 
And, lending to the Caspian half its strength, 
In the cold Lake of Eagles sinks at length ;• — ■ 
There, on the banks of that bright river born. 
The flowers, that hung above its wave at morn, 
Blessed not the waters, as they murmured by. 
With holier scent and lustre, than the sigh 
And virgin-glance of first affection cast 
Upon their youth's smooth current, as it passed ! 
But war disturbed this vision, — far away 
From her fond eyes summoned to join th' array 
Of Persia's w^arriors on the hills of Thrace, 
The youth exchanged his sylvan dwelling-place 
For the rude tent and war-field's deathful clash ; 
His Zelica's sweet glances for the flash 
Of Grecian wild-fire, and Love's gentle chains 
For bleeding bondage on Byzantium's plains. 

Month after month, in widowhood of soul 
Drooping, the maiden saw two summers roll 

» The Amoo, which rises in the Belur Tag, or Dark Mountains, and run- 
ning nearly from east to west, splits into two branches ; one of which falls into 
the Caspian Sea, and the other into Aral Nahr, or the Lake of Eagles. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAiV 5] 

Their suns away — but, all, how cold and dim 
Ev'n summer suns, when not beheld witli him! 
From time to time ill-omened rumours came, 
Like spirit-tongues, muttering the sick man's name, 
Just ere he dies ; — at length those sounds of dread 
Fell withering on her soul, " Azim is dead!" 
O Grief, beyond all other griefs, when fate 
First leaves the young heart lone an4 desolate 
In the wide world, without that only tie 
For which it loved to live or feared to die ; — 
Lorn as the hung-up lute, that ne'er hath spoken 
Since the sad day its master-chord was broken ! 

Fond maid, the sorrow of her soul was such, 
Ev'n reason sunk, — blighted beneath its touch ; 
And though, ere long, her sanguine spirit rose 
Above the first dead pressure of its w^oes. 
Though health and bloom returned, the delicate chain 
Of thought, once tangled, never cleared again. 
Warm, lively, soft as in youth's happiest day. 
The mind was still all there, but turned astray ; — 
A wandering bark, upon w^hose pathway shone 
All stars of heaven, except the guiding one ! 
Again she smiled, nay, much and brightly smiled. 
But 'twas a lustre, strange, unreal, wild ; 
And when she sung to her lute's touching strain, 
'Twas like the notes, half ecstasy, half pain, 



b2 LALLAROOKH. 

The bulbul * utters, ere her soul depart, 

When, vanquished by some minstrel's powerful art, 

She dies upon the lute whose sweetness broke her heart ! 



Such was the mood in which that mission found 
Young Zelica, — that mission, which around 
The Eastern world, in every region blessed 
With woman's smile, sought out its loveliest. 
To grace that galaxy of lips and eyes 
Which the Veiled Prophet destined for the skies ; — 
And such quick welcome as a spark receives 
Dropped on a bed of Autumn's withered leaves. 
Did every tale of these enthusiasts find 
In the wild maiden's sorrow-bUghted mind. 
All fire at once the maddening zeal she caught ; — 
Elect of Paradise ! blest, rapturous thought ! 
Predestined bride, in heaven's eternal dome. 
Of some brave youth — ha! durst they say "of some?'' 
No — of the one, one only object, traced 
In her heart's core too deep to be effaced ; 
The one whose memory, fresh as life, is twmed 
With every broken link of her lost mind ; 
Whose image lives, though Reason's self be wrecked, 
Safe 'mid the ruins of her intellect ! 

» The nightingale. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 53 

Alas, poor Zelica ! it needed all 
The fantasy, which held thy mind in thrall. 
To see in that gay Haram's glowing maids, 
A sainted colony for Eden's shades ; 
Or dream that he, of whose unholy flame 
Thou wert too soon the victim, — shining came 
From Paradise, to people its pure sphere 
With souls like thine, which he hath ruined here ! 
No — had not reason's light totally set. 
And left thee dark, thou hadst an amulet 
In the loved image, graven on thy heart. 
Which would have saved thee from the tempter's art. 
And kept alive, in all its bloom of breath. 
That purity, whose fading is love's death ! — 
But lost, inflamed, — a restless zeal took place 
Of the mild virgin's- still and feminine grace ; 
First of the Prophet's favourites, proudly first 
In zeal and charms, — too well th' Impostor nursed 
Her soul's delirium, in whose active flame, 
Thus lighting up a young, luxuriant frame. 
He saw more potent sorceries to bind 
To his dark yoke the spirits of mankind. 
More subtle chains than hell itself e'er twined. 
No art was spared, no witchery ; — all the skill 
His demons taught him was employed to fill 
Her mind with gloom and ecstasy by turns — 
That gloom, through which Frenzy but fiercer. burns ; 



54 L A L L A R O O K H. 

That ecstasy, which from the depth of sadness 

Glares like the maniac's moon, whose light is madness ! 

'Twas from a brilliant banquet, where the sound 
Of poesy and music breathed around. 
Together picturing to her mind and ear 
The glories of that heaven, her destined sphere, 
Where all was pure, where every stain that lay 
Upon the spirit's light should pass away. 
And, realizing more than youthful love 
E'er wished or dreamed, she should for ever rove 
Through fields of fragrance by her Azim's side, 
His own blessed, purified, eternal bride ! — 
'Twas from a scene, a witching trance like this, 
He hurried her away, yet breathing bliss. 
To the dim charnel-house ; — through all its steams 
Of damp and death, led only by those gleams 
Which foul Corruption lights, as with design 
To show the gay and proud she too can shine — 
And, passing on through upright ranks of Dead, 
Which to the maiden, doubly crazed by dread. 
Seemed, through the bluish death-light round them cast, 
To move their lips in mutterings as she passed — 
There, in that awful place, when each had quaffed 
And pledged in silence such a fearful draught. 
Such — ! the look and taste of that red bowl 
Will haunt her till she dies — he bound her soul 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 55 

By a dark oath, in hell's own language framed, 

Never, while earth his mystic presence claimed. 

While the blue arch of day hung o'er them both, 

Never, by that all-imprecating oath. 

In joy or sorrow from his side to sever. 

She swore, and the wide charnel echoed, "Never, never!" 



From that dread hour, entirely, wildly given 
To him and — she believed, lost maid ! — to heaven ; 
Her brain, her heart, her passions all inflamed. 
How proud she stood, when in full Haram named 
The Priestess of the Faith ! — how flashed her eyes 
With light, alas ! that was not of the skies. 
When round, in trances, only less than hers, 
She saw the Haram kneel, her prostrate worshippers. 
Well might Mokanna think that form alone 
Had spells enough to make the world his own : — 
Light, lovely limbs, to which the spirit's play 
Gave motion, airy as the dancing spray. 
When from its stem the small bird wings away ; 
Lips, in whose rosy labyrinth, when she smiled. 
The soul was lost ; and blushes, swift and wild 
As are the momentary meteors sent 
Across th' uncalm, but beauteous firmament. 
And then her look — ! where's the heart so wise 
Could unbewildered meet those matchless eyes ? 



56 LALLAROOKH. 



Quick, restless, strange, but exquisite withal. 

Like those oi angels, just before their fall ; 

Now shadowed with the shames of earth — now crossed 

By glimpses of the heaven her heart had lost ; 

In every glance there broke, without control, 

The flashes of a bright but troubled soul. 

Where sensibility still wildly played. 

Like lightning, round the ruins it had made ! 

And such was now young Zelica — so changed 
From her who, some years since, delighted ranged 
The almond groves that shade Bokhara's tide. 
All life and bliss, with Azim by her side ! 
So altered was she now, this festal day. 
When, 'mid the proud Divan's dazzling array, 
The vision of that Youth whom she had loved. 
Had wept as dead, before her breathed and moved ; — ' 
When — bright, she thought, as if from Eden's track 
But half-way trodden, he had wandered back 
Again to earth, glistening with Eden's light — 
Her beauteous Azim shone before her sight. 

O Reason ! who shall say what spells renew, 
When least we look for it, thy broken clew ! 
Through what small vistas o'er the darkened brain 
Thy intellectual daybeam bursts again ; 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 57 

And how, like forts, to which beleaguerers win 

Unhoped-for entrance through some friend within, 

One clear idea, wakened in the breast 

By memory's magic, lets in all the rest. 

Would it were thus, unhappy girl, with thee ! 

But though light came, it came but partially ; 

Enough to show the maze, in which thy sense 

Wandered about, — but not to guide it thence ; 

Enough to glimmer o'er the yawning wave, 

But not to point the harbour which might save. 

Hours of delight and peace, long left behind. 

With that dear form came rushing o'er her mind ; 

But ! to think how deep her soul had gone 

In shame and falsehood since those moments shone ; 

And then, her oath — there madness lay again. 

And, shuddering, back she sunk into her chain 

Of mental darkness, as if blessed to flee 

From light, whose every glimpse was agony ! 

Yet, one relief this glance of former years 

Brought, mingled with its pain, — tears, floods of tears, 

Long frozen at her heart, but now like rills 

Let loose in spring-time from the snowy hills. 

And gushing warm, after a sleep of frost. 

Through valleys where their flow had long been lost. 

Sad and subdued, for the first time her frame 
Trembled with horror, when the summons came 



58 L A L L A R K H. 



(A summons proud and rare, which all but she, 
And she, till now, had heard with ecstasy) 
To meet Mokanna at his place of prayer, 
A garden oratory, cool and fair, 
By the stream's side, where still at close of day 
The Prophet of the Veil retired to pray 
Sometimes alone — but, oftener far, with one, 
One chosen nymph to share his orison. 

Of late none found such favour in his sight 
As the young Priestess ; and though, since that night 
When the death-caverns echoed every tone 
Of the dire oath .that made her all his own, 
Th' Impostor, sure of his infatuate prize, 
Had, more than once, thrown off his soul's disguise, 
And uttered such unheavenly, monstrous things. 
As ev'n across the desperate wanderings 
Of a weak intellect, whose lamp was out, 
Threw startling shadows of dismay and doubt ; — 
Yet zeal, ambition, her tremendous vow. 
The thought, still haunting her, of that bright brow 
Whose blaze, as yet from mortal eye concealed. 
Would soon, proud triumph ! be to her revealed, 
To her alone ; — and then the hope, most dear, 
Most wild of all, that her transgression here 
Was but a passage through earth's grosser fire. 
From which the spirit would at last aspire, 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 5P 

Ev'n purer than before, — as perfumes rise 

Through flame and smoke, most welcome to the skies — 

And that when Azim's fond, divine embrace 

Should circle her in heaven, no darkening trace 

Would on that bosom he once loved remain, 

But all be bright, be pure, be his again ! — 

These were the wildering dreams, whose cursed deceit 

Had chained her soul beneath the tempter's feet. 

And made her think ev'n damning falsehood sweet. 

But now that Shape, which had appalled her view 

That Semblance — how terrible, if true ! — 

Which came across her frenzy's full career. 

With shock of consciousness, cold, deep, severe, 

As when, in northern seas, at midnight dark. 

An isle of ice encounters some swift bark, 

And, startling all its wretches from their sleep, 

By one cold impulse hurls them to the deep ; — 

So came that shock not frenzy's self could bear, 

And waking up each long-lulled image there, 

But checked her headlong soul, to sink it in despair ! 

Wan and dejected, through the evening dusk, 
She now went slowly to that small kiosk, 
Where, pondering alone his impious schemes, 
MoKANNA waited her, — too wrapped in dreams 
Of the fair-ripening future's rich success, 
To heed the sorrow, pale and spiritless. 



60 LALLAROOKH. 

That sat upon his victim's downcast brow, 
Or mark how slow her step, how altered now 
From the quick, ardent Priestess, whose light bound 
Came like a spirit's o'er th' unechoing ground, — 
From that wild Zelica, whose every glance 
Was thrilling fire, whose every thought a trance ! 

Upon his couch the Veiled Mokanna lay. 
While lamps around — not such as lend their ray, 
Glimmering and cold, to those who nightly pray 
In holy KooM,* or Mecca's dim arcades, — 
But brilliant, soft, such lights as lovely maids 
Look loveliest in, shed their luxurious glow 
Upon his mystic Veil's white glittering flow. 
Beside him, 'stead of beads and books of prayer. 
Which the world fondly thought he mused on there. 
Stood Vases, filled with Kishmee's^ golden wine, 
And the red weepings of the Shiraz vine ; 
- Of which his curtained lips full many a draught 
Took zealously, as if each drop they quaffed. 
Like Zemzem's Spring of Holiness,'' had power 
To freshen the soul's virtues into flower ! 



^ The cities of Com (or Koom) and Cashan are full of mosques, mausoleums, 
and sepulchres of the descendants of Ali, the Saints of Persia. — Chardin. 

^ An island in the Persian Gulf, celebrated for its white wine. 

<= The miraculous well at Mecca ; so called, says Sale, from the murmuring 
of its waters. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 61 

And still he drank and pondered — nor could see 

Th' approaching maid, so deep his reverie ; 

At length, with fiendish laugh, like that which broke 

From Eblis at the Fall of Man, he spoke : — 

"Yes, ye vile race, for hell's amusement given, 

" Too mean for earth, yet claiming kin with heaven ; 

" God's images, forsooth ; — such gods as he 

"Whom India serves, the monkey deity ;"" — 

" Ye creatures of a breath, proud things of clay, 

" To whom if Lucifer, as grandams say, 

" Refused, though at the forfeit of heaven's light, 

" To bend in worship, Lucifer was right ! ^ 

" Soon shall I plant this foot upon the neck 

" Of your foul race, and without fear or check, 

* The god Hannaman. — « Apes are in many parts of India highly venerated, 
out of respect to the god Hannaman, a deity partaking of the form of that 
race." — Pennant's Hindostan. 

See a curious account, in Stephen's Persia, of a solemn embassy from some 
part of the Indies to Goa, when the Portuguese were there, offering vast 
treasures for the recovery of a monkey's tooth, which they held in great venera- 
tion, and which had been taken away upon the conquest of the kingdom of 
Jafanapatan. 

^ This resolution of Eblis not to acknowledge the new creature, man, was, 
according to Mahometan tradition, thus adopted : — « The earth (which God had 
selected for the materials of his work) was carried into Arabia to a place between 
Mecca and Tayef, where, being first kneaded by the angels, it was afterwards 
fashioned by God himself into a human form, and left to dry for the space of 
forty days, or, as others say, as many years ; the angels, in the mean time, often 
visiting it, and Eblis (then one of the angels nearest to God's presence, after- 
wards the devil) among the rest; but he, not contented with looking at it, 
kicked it with his foot till it rung ; and knowing God designed that creature to 
be his superior, took a secret resolution never to acknowledge him as such. — 
Stilc, on the Koran. 

F 



62 LALLAROOKH. 

" Luxuriating in hate, avenge my shame, 

"My deep-felt, long-nursed loathing of man's name! — 

" Soon at the head of myriads, blind and fierce 

"As hooded falcons, through the universe 

"I'll sweep my darkening, desolating way, 

" Weak man my instrument, cursed man my prey ! 

"Ye wise, ye learned, who grope your dull way on 
' By the dim twinkling gleams of ages gone, 
' Like superstitious thieves, who think the light 
' From dead men's marrow guides them best at night a — 

< Ye shall have honours — wealth, — yes. Sages, yes, — 
' I know, grave fools, your wisdom's nothingness ; 
' Undazzled it can track yon starry sphere, 
' But a gilt stick, a bawble blinds it here. 

< How I shall laugh, when trumpeted along, 
' In lying speech, and still more lying song, 
' By these learned slaves, the meanest of the throng ; 
' Their wits bought up, their wisdom shrunk so small, 
' A sceptre's puny point can wield it all ! 

" Ye, too, believers of incredible creeds, 
" Whose faith enshrines the monsters which it breeds ; 
"Who, bolder ev'n than Nemrod, think to rise, 
"By nonsense heaped on nonsense, to the skies ; 

a A kind of lantern formerly used by robbers, called the Hand of Glory, the 
candle for which was made of the fat of a dead malefactor. Tliis, however, 
was rather a western than an eastern superstition. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 63 

" Ye shall have miracles, ay, sound ones too, 

" Seen, heard, attested, every thing, — but true. 

« Your preaching zealots, too inspired to seek 

" One grace of meaning for the things they speak ; 

"Your martyrs, ready to shed out their blood, 

" For truths too heavenly to be understood ; 

" And your State Priests, sole venders of the lore 

" That works salvation ; — as, on Ava's shore, 

" Where none hut priests are privileged to trade 

"In that best mai'ble of which Gods are made ;^ 

" They shall have mysteries — ay, precious stuff 

" For knaves to thrive by — mysteries enough ; 

" Dark, tangled doctrines, dark as fraud can weave, 

"Which simple votaries shall on trust receive, 

" While craftier feign belief, till they believe. 

"A Heaven too ye must have, ye lords of dust, — 

"A splendid Paradise, — pure souls, ye must : 

« That Prophet ill sustains his holy call, 

" Who finds not heavens to suit the tastes of all ; 

" Houris for boys, omniscience for sages, 

" And wings and glories for all ranks and ages. 

" Vain things! — as lust or vanity inspires, 

" The heaven of each is but what each desires, 



a The material of which images of Gaudma (the Birman Deity) are made, 
is held sacred. "Birmans may not purchase the marble in mass, but are 
suffered, and indeed encouraged, to buy figures of the Deity ready made "— 
Symes's Ava, vol. ii. p. 376. 



64 V LALLAROOKH. 



"And, soul or sense, whate'er the object be, 
"Man would be man to all eternity! 
<« So let him — Eblis ! grant this crowning curse, 
"But keep him what he is, no Hell were worse." 

" my lost soul!" exclaimed the shuddering maid, 
Whose ears had drunk like poison all he said : — 
MoKANNA started — not abashed, afraid, — 
He knew no more of fear than one who dwells 
Beneath the tropics knows of icicles ! 
But, in those dismal words that reached his ear, 
" my lost soul!" there was a sound so drear. 
So like that voice, among the sinful dead. 
In which the legend o'er Hell's Gate is read. 
That, new as 'twas from her, whom naught could dim 
Or sink till now, it stai'tled even him. 

"Ha, my fair Priestess!" — thus, with ready wile, 
Th' Impostor turned to greet her — " thou, whose smUe 
" Hath inspiration in its rosy beam 
" Beyond th' Enthusiast's hope or Prophet's dream ; 
" Light of the Faith ! who twin'st religion's zeal 
" So close with love's, men know not which they feel, 
" Nor which to sigh for, in their trance of heart, 
" The heaven thou preachest or the heaven thou art ! 
" What should I be without thee ? without thee 
"How dull were power, how joyless victory! 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN, 65 

" Though borne by angels, if that smile of thine 

"Blessed not my banner, 'twere but half divine. 

" But — why so mournful, child ? those eyes that shone 

" All life last night — what ! — is their glory gone ? 

" Come, come — this morn's fatigue hath made them pale 

" They want rekindling — suns themselves would fail 

" Did not their comets bring, as I to thee, 

" From light's own fount supplies of brilliancy. 

" Thou seest this cup — no juice of earth is here, 

" But the pure waters of that upper sphere, 

" Whose rills o'er ruby beds and topaz flow, 

" Catching the gem's bright colour, as they go. 

" Nightly my Genii come and fill these urns — 

" Nay, drink — in every drop life's essence burns ; 

" 'Twill make that soul all fire, those eyes all light — 

" Come, come, I w^ant thy loveliest smiles to-night : 

" There is a youth — why start ? — thou saw'st him then ; 

" Looked he not nobly ? such the godlike men 

" Thou'lt have to woo thee in the bowers above ; — 

" Though Ae, I fear, hath thoughts too stern for love, 

" Too ruled by that cold enemy of bliss 

"The world calls virtue — we must conquer this; 

"Nay, shrink not, pretty sage! 'tis not for thee 

"To scan the mazes of heaven's mystery: 

" The steel must pass through fire, ere it can yield 

"Fit instruments for mighty hands to wield. 



66 L A L L A R O K H. 



<' This very night I mean to try the art 

" Of powerful beauty on that warrior's heart. 

" All that my Haram boasts of bloom or wit, 

" Of skill and charms, most rare and exquisite, 

" Shall tempt the boy ; — young Mirzala's blue eyes, 

" Whose sleepy lid like snow on violets lies ; 

"Arouya's cheeks, warm as a spring-day sun, 

" And lips that, like the seal of Solomon, 

" Have magic in their pressure ; Zeba's lute, 

"And Lilla's dancing feet, that gleam and shoot 

" Rapid and white as sea-birds o'er the deep — 

" All shall combine their witching powers to steep 

" My convert's spirit in that softening trance, 

" From which to heaven is but the next advance ; — 

"That glowing, yielding fusion of the breast, 

" On which Religion stamps her image best. 

"But hear me, Priestess! — though each nymph of these 

" Hath some peculiar, practised power to please, 

" Some glance or step which, at the mirror tried, 

" First charms herself, then all the world beside ; 

" There still wants one, to make the<victory sure, 

" One who in every look joins every lure ; 

" Through whom all beauty's beams concentred pass, 

" Dazzling and warm, as through love's burning glass ; 

" Whose gentle lips persuade without a word, 

"Whose words, ev'n when unmeaning, are adored. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 67 

« Like inarticulate breathings from a shrine, 

" Which our faith takes for granted are divine ! 

" Such is the nymph we want, all warmth and light, 

" To crown tjie rich temptations of to-night ; 

" Such the refined enchantress that must be 

"This hero's vanquisher, — and thou art she!" 

With her hands clasped, her lips apart and pale. 
The maid had stood, gazing upon the Veil 
From which these words, like south winds through a fence 
Of Kerzrah flowers, came filled with pestilence ; a 
So boldly uttered too ! as if all dread 
Of frowns from her, of virtuous frowns, were fled, 
And the wretch felt assured that, once plunged in. 
Her woman's soul would know no pause in sin ! 

At first, though mute she listened, like a dream 
Seemed all he said ; nor could her mind, whose beam 
As yet was weak, penetrate half his scheme. 
But when, at length, he uttered, " Thou art she !" 
All flashed at once, and shrieking piteously, 
" 0, not for worlds !" she cried — " Great God ! to whom 
"I once knelt innocent, is this my doom? 
" Are all my dreams, my hopes of heavenly bliss, 
" My purity, my pride, then come to this, — 

a " It is commonly said in Persia, that if a man breathe in the hot south 
wind, which in June or July passes over that flower, (the Kerzereh,) it will kill 
him." — Thcvenot. 



lalla rookh. 



" To live, the wanton of a fiend ! to be 

" The pander of his guilt — infamy ! 

" And sunk, myself, as low as hell can steep 

" In its hot flood, drag others down as deep ! 

" Others — ha! yes — that youth who came to-day — 

" JVot him I loved — not him — ! do but say, 

"But swear to me this moment 'tis not he, 

" And I wiU serve, dark fiend, will worship even thee !" 

" Beware, young raving thing ! — in time beware, 
" Nor utter what I cannot, must not bear, 
" Ev'n from thy lips. Go — try thy lute, thy voice ; 
" The boy must feel their magic ; — I rejoice 
" To see those fires, no matter whence they rise, 
" Once more illuming my fair Priestess' eyes ; 
"And should the youth, whom soon those eyes shall warm, 
« Indeed resemble thy dead lover's form, 
" So much the happier wilt thou find thy doom, 
" As one warm lover, full of life and bloom, 
"Excels ten thousand cold ones in the tomb. 
"Nay, nay, no frowning, sweet; — those eyes were made 
"For love, not anger — I must be obeyed." 

" Obeyed ? — 'tis well — yes, I deserve it all — 
" On me, on me Heaven's vengeance cannot fall 
" Too heavily — but Azim, brave and true 
" And beautiful — must he be ruined too ? 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 69 

"Must he too, glorious as he is, be driven 

"A renegade like me from Love and Heaven? 

*' Like me ? — weak wretch, I wrong him — not like me 

" No — he's all truth and strength and purity ! 

«' Fill up your maddening hell-cup to the brim, 

<' Its witchery, fiend, will have no charm for him. 

" Let loose your glowing wantons from their bowers, 

" He loves, he loves, and can defy their powers ! 

" Wretch as I am, in his heart still I reign 

" Pure as when first we met, without a stain ! 

" Though ruined — lost — my memory, like a charm 

"Left by the. dead, still keeps his soul from harm. 

" ! never let him know how deep the brow 

"He kissed at parting is dishonoured now; — 

" Ne'er tell him how debased, how sunk is she, 

" Whom once he loved — once ! — still loves dotingly. 

"Thou laugh'st, tormentor, — what! — thou'lt brand my 

name? 
" Do, do — in vain — he'll not believe my shame — 
" He thinks me true, that naught beneath God's sky 
" Could tempt or change me, and — so once thought I. 
" But this is past — though worse than death my lot, 
" Than hell — 'tis nothing while he knows it not. 
" Far off to some benighted land I'll fly, 
" Where sunbeam ne'er shall enter till I die ; 
" Where none will ask the lost one whence she came, 
" But I may fade and fall without a name. 



70 LALLAROOKH. 



And thou — cursed man or fiend, whate'er thou art, 
Who found'st this burning plague-spot in my heart, 
And spread'st it — 0, so quick ! — ^through soul and frame, 
With more than demon's art, till I became 
A loathsome thing, all pestilence, all flame ! — 

If, when I'm gone " 

" Hold, fearless maniac, hold. 
Nor tempt my rage — by Heaven, not half so bold 
The puny bird, that dares with teasing hum 
Within the crocodile's stretched jaws to come ! ^ 
And so thou'lt fly, forsooth ? — what ! — give up all 
Thy chaste dominion in the Haram Hall, 
Where now to Love and now to Alla given. 
Half mistress and half saint, thou hang'st as even 
As doth Medina's tomb, 'twixt hell and heaven ! 
Thou'lt fly ? — as easily may reptiles run. 
The gaunt snake once hath fixed his eyes upon ; 
As easily, when caught, the prey may be 
Plucked from his loving folds, as thou from me. 
No, no, 'tis fixed — let good or ill betide, 
Thou'rt mine till death, tiU death Mokanna's bride ! 
Hast thou forgot thy oath?" — 



a The humming-bird is said to run this risk for the purpose of picking the 
crocodile's teeth. The same circumstance is related of the lapwing, as a fact 
to which he was witness, by Paul Lucas, Voyage fait en 1714. 

The ancient story concerning the Trochilus, or humming-bird, entering with 
impunity into the mouth of the crocodile, is firmly believed at Java. — Barrou^s 
Cochin-China. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 71 

At this dread word, 
The Maid, whose spirit his rude taunts had stirred 
Through all its depths, and roused an anger there, 
That burst and lightened ev'n through her despair. 
Shrunk back, as if a blight were in the breath 
That spoke that word, and staggered pale as death. 

" Yes, my sworn bride, let others seek in bowers 
" Their bridal-place — the charnel vault was ours ! 
" Instead of scents and balms, for thee and me 
" Rose the rich steams of sweet mortality ; 
" Gay, flickering death-lights shone while we were wed, 
"And, for our guests, a row of goodly Dead 
" (Immortal spirits in their time, no doubt) 
" From reeking shrouds upon the rite looked out : 
" That oath thou heard'st more lips than thine repeat — 
" That cup — thou shudderest. Lady — was it sweet ? 
" That cup we pledged, the charnel's choicest wine, 
" Hath bound thee — ay — body and soul all mine ; 
" Bound thee by chains that, whether blessed or cursed 
" No matter now, not hell itself shall burst ! 
"Hence, woman, to the Haram, and look gay, 
" Look wild, look — any thing but sad; yet stay — 
" One moment more — from what this night hath passed, 
" I see thou know'st me, know'st me well at last. 
"Ha! ha! and so, fond thing, thou thought'st all true, 
" And that I love mankind ? — I do, I do — 



72 LALLAROOKH. 



"As victims, love them; as the sea-dog dotes 

" Upon the small, sweet fry that round him floats ; 

" Or, as the Nile-bird loves the slime that gives 

" That rank and venomous food on vi^hich she lives !a — 



"And, now thou seest my souPs angelic hue, 
'Tis time these features were uncurtained too ; — ■ 
This brow, whose light — rare celestial light ! — • 
Hath been reserved to bless thy favored sight ; 
These dazzling eyes, before whose shrouded might 
Thou'st seen immortal Man kneel down and quake — 
Would that they were heaven's lightnings for his sake ! 
But turn and look — then wonder, if thou wilt. 
That I should hate, should take revenge, by guilt, 
Upon the hand, whose mischief or whose mirth 
Sent me thus maimed and monstrous upon earth ; 
And on that race who, though more vile they be 
Than mowing apes, are demigods to me ! 
Here — judge if hell, with all its power to damn, 
Can add one curse to the foul thiner I am!" 



He raised his veil — the Maid turned slowly round, 
Looked at him — shrieked — and sunk upon the ground! 



^ Circum easdem ripas (Nili, viz.) ales est Ibis. Ea serpentium populatur 
ova, gratissimamque ex his escam nidis suis refert. — Solinus, 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 73 



On their arrival, next night, at the place of encampmfint, 
they were surprised and delighted to find the groves all around 
illuminated; some artists of Yamtcheou^ having been sent 
on previously for the purpose. On each side of the green 
alley, which led to the Royal Pavilion, artificial sceneries of 
bamboo-work'' were erected, representing arches, minarets, 
and towers, from which hung thousands of silken lanterns, 
painted by the most delicate pencils of Canton, — Nothing 
could be more beautiful than the leaves of the mango-trees 
and acacias, shining in the light of the bamboo-scenery, which 
shed a lustre round as soft as that of the nights of Peristan. 

Lalla Rookh, however, who was too much occupied by 
the sad story of Zelica and her lover, to give a thought to 



*«The Feast of Lanterns is celebrated at Yamtcheou with more magnifi- 
cence than anyvihere else: and the report goes, that the illuminations there are 
so splendid, that an Emperor once, not daring openly to leave his Court to go 
thither, committed himself with the Queen and several Princesses of his family 
into the hands of a magician, who promised to transport them thither in a trice. 
He made them in the night to ascend magnificent thrones that were borne up 
by swans, which in a moment arrived at Yamtcheou. The Emperor saw at his 
leisure all the solemnity, being carried upon a cloud that hovered over the city 
and descended by degrees; and came back again with the same speed and 
equipage, nobody at court perceiving his absence." — The Present State of China- 
p. 156. 

^ See a description of the nuptials of Vizier Alee in the Jlsialic Annual 
Kcgister of 1804. 

G 



74 LALLAROOKH. 

any thing else, except, perhaps, him who related it, hurried 
on through this scene of splendour to her pavilion, — greatly 
to the mortification of the poor artists of Yamtcheou, — and 
was followed with equal rapidity by the Great Chamberlain, 
cursing, as he went, tliat ancient Mandarin, whose parental 
anxiety in lighting up the shores of the lake, where his beloved 
daughter had wandered and been lost, was the origin of these 
fantastic Chinese illuminations.* 

Without a moment's delay, young Feramorz was intro- 
duced, and Fadladeen, who could never make up his mind 
as to the merits of a poet tUl he knew the religious sect to 
which he belonged, was about to ask him whether he was a 
Shia or a Sooni, when Lalla Rookh impatiently clapped her 
hands for silence, and the youth, being seated upon the mus- 
nud near her, proceeded : — 



■a u The vulgar ascribe it to an accident that happened in the family of a 
famous mandarin, whose daughter, walking one evening upon the shore of a lake, 
fell in and was drowned ; this afflicted father, with his family, ran thither, and, 
the better to find her, he caused a great company of lanterns to be lighted. AH 
the inhabitants of the place thronged after him with torches. The year ensumg 
they made fires upon the shores the same day ; they continued the ceremony 
every year, every one lighted his lantern, and by degrees it commenced into a 
custom." — Present State of China. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 75 



Prepare thy soul, young Azim ! — thou hast braved 
The bands of Greece, still mighty though enslaved ; 
Hast faced her phalanx, armed with all its fame, 
Her Macedonian pikes and globes of flame ; 
All this hast fronted, with firm heart and brow ; 
But a more perilous trial waits thee now, — 
Woman's bright eyes, a dazzling host of eyes 
From every land where woman smiles or sighs ; 
Of every hue, as Love may chance to raise 
His black or azure banner in their blaze ; 
And each sweet mode of warfare, from the flash 
That lightens boldly through the shadowy lash, 
To the sly, stealing splendours, almost hid. 
Like swords half-sheathed, beneath the downcast lid ; 
Such, AziM, is the lovely, luminous host 
Now led against thee ; and, let conquerors boast 
Their fields of fame, he who in virtue arms 
A young, warm spirit against beauty's charms. 
Who feels her brightness, yet defies her thrall. 
Is the best, bravest conqueror of them all. 

Now, through the Haram chambers, moving lights 
And busy shapes proclaim the toilet's rites ; — 



76 LALLAROOKH. 

From room to room the ready handmaids hie, 

Some skilled to wreathe the turban tastefully, 

Or hang the veil, in negligence of shade, 

O'er the warm blushes of the youthful maid, 

Who, if between the folds but one eye shone. 

Like Seba's Queen, could vanquish with that one :^ — 

While some bring leaves of Henna, to imbue 

The fingers' ends with a bright roseate hue,^ 

So bright, that in the mirror's depth they seem 

Like tips of coral branches in the stream : 

And others mix the Kohol's jetty dye, 

To give that long, dark languish to the eye," 

Which makes the maids, whom kings are proud to cull 

From fair Circassia's vales, so beautiful. 

All is in motion ; — rings and plumes and pearls 

Are shining everywhere : — some younger girls 



^ "Thou liast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes." — Sol. Song. 

^ " They tinged the ends of her fingers scarlet with Henna, so that they 
resembled branches of coral." — Story of Prince Futtun in Bahardanush. 

c " The women blacken the inside of their eyelids with a powder named the 
black Kohol." — Biissel. 

"None of these ladies," says Shaw, "take themselves to be completely 
dressed, till they have tinged the hair and edges of their eyelids with the powder 
of lead ore. Now, as this operation is performed by dipping first into the pow- 
der a small wooden bodkin of the thickness of a quill, and then drawing it after- 
wards tlirough the eyelids over the ball of the eye, we shall have a lively image 
of what the Pj-ophet (Jer. iv. 30) may be supposed to mean by rending the eyes 
ivith painti;ig. This practice is no doubt of gTeat antiquity : for besides the 
instance already taken notice of, we find that where Jezebel is said (2 Kings ix. 
30) to have painted her face, the original words are she adjusted her eyes with the 
powder of lead ore." — Shaiv's Travels. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 77 

Are gone by moonlight to the garden-beds, 
To gather fresh, cool chaplets for their heads ; — • 
Gay creatures! sweet, though mournful, 'tis to see 
How each prefers a garland from that tree 
Which brings to mind her childhood's innocent day. 
And the dear fields and friendships far away. 
The maid of India, blessed again to hold 
In her full lap the Champac's leaves of gold,^ 
Thinks of the time when, by the Ganges' flood, 
Her little playmates scattered many a bud 
Upon her long black hair, with glossy gleam 
Just dripping from the consecrated stream ; 
While the young Arab, haunted by the smell 
Of her own mountain flowers, as by a spell, — 
The sweet Elcaya," and that courteous tree 
Which bows to all who seek its canopy," — 
Sees, called up round her by these magic scents, 
The well, the camels, and her father's tents ; 
Sighs for the home she left with little pain. 
And wishes ev'n its sorrows back aofain ! 



a « The appearance of the blossoms of the gold-coloured Campac on the 
black hair of the Indian women has supplied the Sanscrit Poets with many 
elegant allusions." — See Asiatic Researches, vol. iv. 

^ A tree famous for its perfume, and common on the hills of Yemen.— 
Niebuhr. 

*= Of the genus mimosa, " which droops its branches whenever any person 
approaches it, seeming as if it saluted those who retire under its shade."— 
Niebuhr. 

g2 



78 L A L L A R O O K H. 

Meanwhile, through vast illuminated halls, 
Silent and bright, where nothing but the falls 
Of fragrant waters, gushing with cool sound 
From many a jasper fount, is heard around, 
Young AziM roams bewildered, — nor can guess 
What means this maze of light and loneliness. 
Here, the way leads, o'er tessellated floors 
Or mats of Cairo, through long corridors. 
Where, ranged in cassolets and silver urns. 
Sweet wood of aloe or of sandal burns ; 
And spicy rods, such as illume at night 
The bowers of Tibet,* send forth odorous light. 
Like Peris' wands, when pointing out the road 
For some pure Spirit to its blest abode : — 
And here, at once, the glittering saloon 
Bursts on his sight, boundless and bright as noon ; 
Where, in the midst, reflecting back the rays 
In broken rainbows, a fresh fountain plays 
High as th' enamelled cupola, which towers 
All rich with Arabesques of gold and flowers : 
And the mosaic floor beneath shines through 
The sprinkling of that fountain's silvery dew. 
Like the wet, glistening shells, of every dye, 
That on the margin of the Red Sea lie. 



^ " Cloves are a principal ingredient in the compos3ition of the perfumed 
rods, which men of rank Iceep constantly burning in their presence." — Turner's 
Tibet. 



VEILED PKOPHET OF KHORASSAN. 79 

Here too he traces the kind visitings 
Of woman's love in those fair, living things 
Of land and wave, whose fate — in bondage thrown 
For their weak loveliness — is like her own ! 
On one side gleaming with a sudden grace 
Through water, brilliant as the crystal vase 
In which it undulates, small fishes shine, 
Like golden ingots from a fairy mine ; — 
While, on the other, latticed lightly in 
With oderiferous woods of Comorin,^ 
Each brilliant bird that wings the air is seen ; — 
Gay, sparkling loories, such as gleam bet\veen 
The crimson blossoms of the coral-tree'' 
In the warm isles of India's sunny sea ; 
Mecca's blue sacred pigeon," and the thrush 
Of Hindostan,'' whose holy warblings gush, 
At evening, from the tall pagoda's top ; — 
Those golden birds that, in the spice-time, drop 
About the gardens, drunk with that sweet food^ 

* " C'est d'ou vient le bois d'aloes, que les Arabes appellent Oud Comari, et 
celui dit sandal, qui s'y trouve en grande quantite." — D^Herhelot. 

^ " Thousands of variegated loories visit the coral-trees." — Barrow. 

<= " In Mecca there are quantities of blue pigeons, which none will affright 
or abuse, much less kill." — PitCs Account of the Mahometans. 

^ « The Pagoda Thrush is esteemed among the first choristers of India. It 
sits perched on the sacred pagodas, and from thence delivers its melodious song." 
— Pennant's Hindostan. 

e Tavernier adds, that while the Birds of Paradise lie in this intoxicated 
state, the emmets come and eat off their legs ; and that hence it is they are said 
to have no feet. 



feO L A L L A R O O K H. 



Whose scent hath lured them o'er the summer flood;* 

And those that under Araby's soft sun 

Build their high nests of budding cinnamon ; ^ 

In short, all rare and beauteous things, that fly 

Through the pure element, here calmly lie 

Sleeping in light, like the green birds " that dwell 

In Eden's radiant fields of asphodel ! 

So on, through scenes past all imagining, 
More like the luxuries of that impious king,^ 
Whom Death's dark Angel, with his lightning torch, 
Struck down and blasted ev'n in Pleasure's porch, 
Than the pure dwelling of a Prophet sent, 
Armed with Heaven's sword, for man's enfranchisement- 
Young AziM wandered, looking sternly round. 
His simple garb and war-boots' clanking sound 
But ill according with the pomp and grace 
And silent lull of that voluptuous place. 



^ Birds of Paradise, •which, at the nutmeg season, come in flights from the 
southern isles to India ; and « the strength of the nutmeg," says Tavernier, « so 
intoxicates them that they fall dead drunk to the earth." 

^ « That bird which liveth in Arabia, and buildeth its nest with cinnamon." — 
Brown's Vulgar Errors. 

« « The spirits of the martyrs will be lodged in the crops of green birds." — 
Gibbon, vol. ix. p. 421. 

d Shedad, who made the delicious gardens of Trim, in imitation of Paradise, 
and was destroyed by lightning the first time he attempted to enter them. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 81 

«Is this, then," thought the youth, " is this the way 
" To free man's spirit from the deadening sway 
" Of worldly sloth, — to teach him, while he lives, 
" To know no bliss but that which virtue gives, 
" And when he dies, to leave his lofty name 
" A light, a landmark on the cliffs of fame ? 
"It was not so. Land of the generous thought 
" And daring deed, thy godlike sages taught ; 
" It was not thus, in bowers of wanton ease, 
" Thy Freedom nursed her sacred energies ; 
" ! not beneath th' enfeebling, withering glow 
" Of such dull luxury did those myrtles grow, 
" With which she wreathed her sword, when she would dare 
" Immortal deeds ; but in the bracing air 
" Of toil, — of temperance, — of that high, rare, 
" Ethereal virtue, which alone can breathe 
" Life, health, and lustre into Freedom's wreath. 
" Who, that surveys this span of earth we press, — 
" This speck of life in time's great wilderness, 
"This narrow isthmus 'twixt two boundless seas, 
"The past, the future, two eternities! — 
"Would sully the bright spot, or leave it bare, 
"When he might build him a proud temple there, 
"A name, that long shall hallow all its space, 
"And be each purer soul's high resting-place? 
"But no — it cannot be, that one, whom God 
" Has sent to break the wizard Falsehood's rod, — • 



82 L A L L A R O K H. 



" A Prophet of the truth, whose mission draws 

" Its rites from Heaven, should thus profane its cause 

" With the world's vulgar pomps ; — no, no, — I see — 

"He thinks me weak — this glare of luxury 

" Is but to tempt, to try the eaglet gaze 

" Of my young soul — shine on, 'twill stand the blaze!" 



So thought the youth : — but, ev'n while he defied 
This witching scene, he felt its witchery glide 
Through every sense. The perfume breathing round, 
Like a pervading spirit ; — the still sound 
Of falling waters, lulling as the song 
Of Indian bees at sunset, when they throng 
Around the fragrant Nilica, and deep 
In its blue blossoms hum themselves to sleep ; "■ 
And music, too — dear music ! that can touch 
Beyond all else the soul that loves it much — 
Now heard far off, so far as but to seem 
Like the faint, exquisite music of a dream ; — 
All was too much for him, too full of bliss ; 
The heart could nothing feel, that felt not this ; 
Softened, he sunk upon a couch, and gave 
His soul up to sweet thoughts, like wave on wave 



a « My Pandits assure me that the plant before us (the Nilica) is their 
Sephalica, thus named because the bees are supposed to sleep on its blossoms." — 
Sir W. Jones. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 83 

Succeeding in smooth seas, when storms are laid ; 
He thought of Zelica, his own dear maid, 
And of the time when, full of blissful sighs, 
They sat and looked into each other's eyes. 
Silent and happy — as if God had given 
Naught else worth looking at on this side heaven. 



" my loved mistress, thou, whose spirit still 
" Is with me, round me, wander where I will — 
" It is for thee, for thee alone I seek 
" The paths of glory ; to light up thy cheek 
" With warm approval — in that gentle look, 
" To read my praise, as in an angel's book, 
" And think all toils rewarded, when from thee 
" I gain a smile worth immortality ! 
" How shall I bear the moment, when restored 
" To that young heart where I alone am Lord, 
" Though of such bliss unworthy, — since the best ' 
"Alone deserve to be the happiest; — 
"When from those lips, unbreathed upon for years, 
"I shall again kiss off the soulfelt tears, 
" And find those tears warm as when last they started, 
" Those sacred kisses pure as when we parted ! 
" my own life! — why should a single day, 
"A moment keep me from those arms away?" 



84 LALLAROOKH. 



While thus he thinks, still nearer, on the breeze. 
Come tliose delicious, dreamlike harmonies, 
Each note of which but adds new, downy links 
To the soft chain in which his spirit sinks. 
He turns him toward the sound, and far away 
Through a long vista, sparkling with the play 
Of countless lamps, — like the rich track which Day 
Leaves on the waters, when he sinks from us. 
So long the path, its light so tremulous, — 
He sees a group of female forms advance. 
Some chained together in the mazy dance 
By fetters forged in the green sunny bowers. 
As they were captives to the King of Flowers ;* 
And some disporting round, unlinked and free, 
Who seemed to mock their sisters' slavery ; 
And round and round them still, in wheeling flight 
Went, like gay moths about a lamp at night ; 
While others waked, as gracefully along 
Their feet kept time, the very soul of song 
• From psaltery, pipe, and lutes of heavenly thrill. 
Or their own youthful voices, heavenlier still. 
And now they come, now pass before his eye. 
Forms such as Nature moulds, when she would vie 
With Fancy's pencil, and give birth to things 
Lovely beyond its fairest picturings. 

a « They deferred it till the King of Flowers should ascend his throne of 
enamelled foliage." — The Bahardanush, 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 85 

Awhile they dance before him, then divide, 

Breaking, like rosy clouds at eventide 

Around the rich pavilion of the sun, — 

TUl, sUently dispersing, one by one. 

Through many a path, that from the chamber leads 

To gardens, terraces, and moonlight meads. 

Their distant laughter comes upon the wind. 

And but one trembling nymph remains behind, — 

Beckoning them back in vain, for they are gone. 

And she is left in all that light alone ; 

No veil to curtain o'er her beauteous brow. 

In its young bashfulness more beauteous now ; 

But a light golden chain-work round her hair,* 

Such as the maids of Yezd ^ and Shiraz wear, 

From which, on either side, gracefully hung 

A golden amulet, in th' Arab tongue, 

Engraven o'er with some immortal line 

From Holy Writ, or bard scarce less divine ; 

While her left hand, as shrinkingly she stood. 

Held a small lute of gold and sandal-wood. 

Which, once or twice, she touched with hurried stram, 

Then took her trembling; finarers off again. 

a « One of the head-dresses of the Persian women is composed of a light 
golden chain-work, set with small pearls, with a thin gold plate pendant, about 
the bigness of a crown-piece, on which is impressed an Arabian prayer, and 
which hangs upon the cheek below the ear." — Hanway^s Travels. 

* " Certainly the women of Yezd are the handsomest women in Persia. 
The proverb is, that to live happy a man must have a wife of Yezd, eat the 
bread of Yczdecas, and drink the wine of Shiraz." — Tavcrnier, 

H 



86 L A L L A R K H. 

But when at length a timid glance she stole 

At AziM, the sweet gravity of soul 

She saw through all his features, calmed her fear, 

And, lilce a half-tamed antelope, more near. 

Though shrinliing still, she came ; — then sat her down 

Upon a musnud's * edge, and bolder grown, 

In the pathetic mode of Isfahan*" 

Touched a preluding strain, and thus began : — 



There's a bower of roses by Bendemeer's " stream, 
And the nightingale sings round it all the day long ; 

In the time of my childhood 'twas like a sweet dream, 
To sit in the roses and hear the bird's song. 

That bower and its music I never forget. 

But oft when alone, in the bloom of the year, 

I think — Is the nightingale singing there yet ? 

Are the roses still bright by the calm Bendemeer ? 

No, the roses soon withered that hung o'er the wave, 
But some blossoms were gathered, while freshly they 
shone, 

a Musnuds are cushioned seats, usually reserved for persons of distinction. 

b The Persians, Uke the ancient Greeks, call their musical modes or Perdas 
by the name of different countries or cities, as the mode of Isfahan, the mode of 
Irak, &c. 

c A river which flows near the ruins of Chihninar. 



VEILED PROPHET OB' KHORASSAN. 87 

A.nd a dew was distilled from their flowers, that gave 
All the fragrance of summer, when summer was gone. 

Thus memory draws from delight, ere it dies, 
An essence that breathes of it many a year ; 

Thus bright to my soul, as 'twas then to my eyes, 
Is that bower on the banks of the calm Bendemeer ! 



"Poor maiden!" thought the youth, "if thou wert 
sent, 
"With thy soft lute and beauty's blandishment, 
" To wake unholy wishes in this heart, 
" Or tempt its truth, thou little know'st the art. 
" For though thy lip should sweetly counsel wrong, 
"Those vestal eyes would disavow its song. 
" But thou hast breathed such purity, thy lay 
" Returns so fondly to youth's virtuous day, 
"And leads thy soul — if e'er it wandered thence — ■ 
" So gently back to its first innocence, 
"That I would sooner stop the unchained dove, 
"When swift returning to its home of love, 
" And round its snowy wing new fetters twine, 
" Than turn from virtue one pure wish of thine !" 

Scarce had this feeling passed, when, sparkling through 
The gently opened curtains of light blue 



88 LALLAROOKH. 

That veiled the breezy casement, countless eyes, 
Peeping like stars through the blue evening skies, 
Looked laughing in, as if to mock the pair 
That sat so still and melancholy there : — 
And now the curtains fly apart, and in 
From the cool air, 'mid showers of jessamine 
Which those without fling after them in play, 
Two lightsome maidens spring, — lightsome as they 
Who live in th' air on odours, — and around 
The bright saloon, scarce conscious of the ground. 
Chase one another, in a varying dance 
Of mirth and languor, coyness and advance, 
Too eloquently like love's warm pursuit : — 
While she, who sung so gently to the lute 
Her dream of home, steals timidly away. 
Shrinking as violets do in summer's ray, — 
But takes with her from Azim's heart that sigh 
We sometimes give to forms that pass us by 
In the world's crowd, too lovely to remain 
Creatures of light we never see again ! 

Around the white necks of the nymphs who danced 
Hung carcanets of orient gems, that glanced 
More brilliant than the sea-glass glittering o'er 
The hills of crystal on the Caspian shore ; ^ 

«■ "To the north of us (on the coast of the Caspian, near Badku) was a 
mountain, which sparkled like diamonds, arising from the sea-glass and crystals 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 89 



While from their long, dark tresses, in a fall 

Of curls descending, bells as musical 

As those that, on the golden-shafted trees 

Of Eden, shake in the eternal breeze,^ 

Rung round their steps, at every bound more sweet, 

As 'twere th' ecstatic language of their feet. 

At length the chase was o'er, and they stood wreathed 

Within each other's arms ; while soft there breathed 

Through the cool casement, mingled with the sighs 

Of moonlight flowers, music that seemed to rise 

From some still lake, so liquidly it rose ; 

And, as it swelled again at each faint close. 

The ear could track through all that maze of chords 

And young sweet voices, these impassioned words : — 

A Spirit there is, whose fragrant sigh 

Is burning now through earth and air ; 
Where cheeks are blushing, the Spirit is nigh. 

Where lips are meeting, the Spirit is there ! 

His breath is the soul of flowers like these, 
And his floating eyes — ! they resemble ^ 

with which it abounds." — Journey of the Mussian Ambassador to Persia, 
1746. 

a "To which will be added the sound of the bells, hanging on the trees, 
which will be put in motion by the wind proceeding from the throne of God, 
as often as the blessed wish for music." — Sale. 

b " Whose wanton eyes resemble blue water-lilies, agitated by the breeze."— 
Jayachva. 

II 2 



90 L A L L A R O K H. 

Blue water-lilieSj^ when the breeze 

Is making the stream around them tremble. 

Hail to thee, hail to thee, kindling power ! 

Spirit of Love, Spirit of Bliss ! 
Thy holiest time is the moonlight hour, 

And there never was moonlight so sweet as this , 

By the fair and brave 

Who blushing unite. 
Like the sun and wave. 

When they meet at night ; — • 

By the tear that shows 

When passion is nigh, 
As the rain- drop flows 

From the heat of the sky ; — 

By the first love-beat 

Of the youthful heart, 
By the bliss to meet. 

And the pain to part ; — 

By all that thou hast 
To mortals given, 

* The blue lotos, which grows in Cashmere anil in Persia. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 91 

Which — 0, could it last, 
This earth were heaven ! 

We call thee hither, entrancing Power ! 

Spirit of Love ! Spirit of Bliss ! 
Thy holiest time is the moonlight hour, 

And there never was moonlight so sweet as this ! 



Impatient of a scene, whose luxuries stole. 
Spite of himself, too deep into his soul, 
And where, midst all that the young heart loves most, 
Flowers, music, smiles, to yield was to be lost. 
The youth had started up, and turned away 
From the light nymphs, and their luxurious lay. 
To muse upon the pictures that hung round,'^ — 
Bright images, that spoke without a sound. 
And views, like vistas into fairy ground. 
But here again new spells came o'er his sense : — 
All that the pencil's mute omnipotence 
Could call up into life, of soft and fair, 
Of fond and passionate, was glowing there ; 



a It has been generally supposed that the Mahometans prohibit all pictures 
of animals ; but Toderini shows that, though the practice is forbidden by the 
Koran, they are not more averse to painted figures and images than other 
people. From Mr. Murphy's work, too, we find that the Arabs of Spain had 
no objection to the introduction of figures into painting. 



92 LALLAROOKH. 

Nor yet too warm, but touched with that fine art 
"Which paints of pleasure but the purer part ; 
Which knows ev'n Beauty when half-veiled is best, — 
Like her own radiant planet of the west. 
Whose orb when half retired looks loveliest/ 
Tliere hung the history of the Genii- King, 
Traced through each gay, voluptuous wandering 
"With her from Saba's bowers, in whose bright eyes 
He read that to be blessed is to be wise ; ^ 
Here fond Zuleika "^ woos with open arms 
The Hebrew boy, who flies from her young charms. 
Yet, flying, turns to gaze, and, half undone. 
Wishes that heaven and she could both be won ; 

^ This is not quite astronomically true. " Dr. Hadley (says Keil) has shown 
that Venus is brightest when she is about forty degrees removed from the sun ; 
and that then but only a fourth part of her lucid disk is to be seen from the 
earth." 

^ For the loves of King Solomon (who was supposed to preside- over the 
whole race of Genii) with Balkis, the Queen of Sheba, or Saba, see D'Herbelot, 
and the Notes on the Koran, chap. 2. 

«' In the palace which Solomon ordered to be built against the arrival of the 
Queen of Saba, the floor or pavement was of transparent glass, laid over running 
water, in which fish were swimming." This led the Queen into a very natural 
mistake, which the Koran has not thought beneath its dignity to commemorate. 
« It was said unto her, ' Enter the palace.' And when she saw it she imagined 
it to be a great water ; and she discovered her legs by lifting up her robe to pass 
through it. Whereupon Solomon said to her, ' Verily, this is the place evenly 
floored with glass.' " — Chap. 27. 

•= The wife of Potiphar, thus named by the Orientals. 

« The passion which this firail beauty of antiquity conceived for her young 
Hebrew slave has given rise to a much esteemed poem in the Persian language, 
entitled Ynsef van Zclikha, by Noiireddin Jami ; the manuscript copy of which, 
in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, is supposed to be the finest in the whole 
world." — Note upon NotCs Translation of Hafez, 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN 93 

And here Mohammed, born for love and guile, 
Forgets tlie Koran in his Mary's smile ; — 
Then beckons some kind angel from above 
With a new text to consecrate their love.* 

With rapid step, yet pleased and lingering eye, 
Did the youth pass these pictured stories by. 
And hastened to a casement, where the light 
Of the calm moon came in, and freshly bright 
The fields without were seen, sleeping as still 
As if no life remained in breeze or rill. 
Here paused he, while the music, now less near, 
Breathed with a holier language on his ear. 
As tliough the distance, and that heavenly ray 
Through which the sounds came floating, took away 
All that had been too earthly in the lay. 

O ! could he listen to such sounds unmoved. 
And by that light — nor dream of her he loved ? 
Dream on, unconscious boy ! while yet thou may'st ; 
'Tis the last bliss thy soul shall ever taste. 
Clasp yet awhile her image to thy heart 
Ere all the light, that made it dear, depart. 



a The particulars of Mahomet's amour with Mary, the Coptic girl, in justifi- 
cation of which he added a new chapter to the Koran, may be found in Ga§nie 
Notes upon Abulfeda, p. 1.51. 



94 LALLAROOKH. 

Think of her smiles as when thou saw'st them last, 
Clear, beautiful, by naught of earth o'ercast;" 
Recall her tears, to thee at parting given, 
Pure as they weep, \f angels weep, in heaven. 
Think, in her own still bower she waits thee now, 
"With the same glow of heart and bloom of brow, 
Yet shrined in solitude — thine all, thine only. 
Like the one star above thee, bright and lonely. 
that a dream so sweet, so long enjoyed, 
Should be so sadly, cruelly destroyed ! 

The song is hushed, the laughing nymphs are flown, 
And he is left, musing of bliss, alone ; — 
Alone ? — no, not alone — that heavy sigh, 
That sob of ^ief, which broke from some one nigh — 
Whose could it be ? — alas ! is misery found 
Here, even here, on this enchanted ground ? 
He turns, and sees a female form, close veiled. 
Leaning, as if both heart and strength had failed. 
Against a pillar near ; — not glittering o'er 
With gems and wreaths, such as the others wore, 
But in that deep-blue melancholy dress,* 
Bokhara's maidens wear in mindfulness 
Of friends or kindred, dead or far away ; — 
And such as Zelica had on that day 

» " Deep blue is their mourning colour." — Hanway. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 95 

He left her — when, with heart too full to speak, 
He took away her last warm tears upon his cheek. 

A strange emotion stirs within him, — more 
Than mere compassion ever waked before ; 
Unconsciously he opes his arms, while she 
Springs forward, as with life's last energy, 
But, swooning in that one convulsive bound. 
Sinks, ere she reach his arms, upon the ground ; — 
Her veil falls off — her faint hands clasp his knees — 
'Tis she herself! — 'tis Zelica he sees! 
But, ah, so pale, so changed — none but a lover 
Could in that wreck of beauty's shrine discover 
The once adored divinity — ev'n he 
Stood for some moments mute, and doubtingly 
Put back the ringlets from her brow, and gazed 
Upon those lids, where once such lustre blazed. 
Ere he could think she was indeed his own. 
Own darling maid, whom he so long had known 
In joy and sorrow, beautiful in both ; 
Who, ev'n when grief was heaviest — when loath 
He left her for the wars — in that worst hour 
Sat in her sorrow like the sweet night-flower,* 
When darkness brings its weeping glories out. 
And spreads its sighs like frankincense about. 

^ The sorrowful nyctanthes, which begins to spread its rich odour after 
sunset. 



9(J L A L L A R O K H. 



" Look up, my Zelica — one moment show 
" Those gentle eyes to me, that I may know 
" Thy life, thy loveliness is not all gone, 
" But there, at least, shines as it ever shone. 
" Come, look upon thy Azim — one dear glance, 
" Like those of old, were heaven ! whatever chance 
"Hath brought thee here, 0, 'twas a blessed one! 
" There — my loved lips — they move — that kiss hath run 
" Like the first shoot of life through every vein, 
" And now I clasp her, mine, all mine again. 
" the delight — now, in this very hour, 
" When, had the whole rich world been in my power, 
" I should have singled out thee, only thee, 
"From the whole World's collected treasury — 
" To have thee here — to hang thus fondly o'er 
"My own best, purest Zelica once more!" 



It was indeed the touch of those fond lips 
Upon her eyes that chased their short eclipse, 
And, gradual as the snow, at heaven's breath, 
Melts off and shows the azure flowers beneath, 
Her lids unclosed, and the bright eyes were seen 
Gazing on his — not, as they late had been, 
Quick, restless, wild, but mournfully serene ; 
As if to lie, ev'n for that tranced minute, 
So near his heart, had consolation in it ; 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN Qf 

And thus to wake in his beloved caress 
Took from her soul one half its wretchedness. 
But, when she heard him call her good and pure, 
0, 'twas too much — too dreadful to endure ! 
Shuddering she broke away from his embrace, 
And, hiding with both hands her guilty face, 
Said, in a tone whose anguish would have riven 
A heart of very marble, "Pure! — heaven!" — 

That tone — those looks so changed — the withering 
blight, 
That sin and sorrow leave where'er they light; 
The dead despondency of those sunk eyes. 
Where once, had he thus met her by surprise, 
He would have seen himself, too happy boy. 
Reflected in a thousand lights of joy ; 
And then the place, — that bright, unholy place. 
Where vice lay hid beneath each winning grace 
And charm of luxury; as the viper weaves 
Its wily covering of sweet balsam leaves,* — 
All struck upon his heart, sudden and cold 
As death itself; — it needs not to be told — 
No, no — he sees it all, plain as the brand 
Of burning shame can mark — whate'er the hand. 



a « Concerning the vipers, which Pliny says were frequent among the 
balsam-trees, I made veiy particular inquiry ; several were brought me alive 
both to Yambo and Jidda." — Bruce. 

I 



98 L A L L A R O K H. 

That could from heaven and him such brightness sever, 
'Tis done — to heaven and him she's lost for ever ! 
It was a dreadful moment ; not the tears, 
The lingering, lasting misery of years 
Could match that minute's anguish — all the worst 
Of sorrow's elements in that dark burst 
Broke o'er his soul, and, with one crash of fate. 
Laid the whole hopes of his life desolate. 

" ! curse me not," she cried, as wild he tossed 
His desperate hand towards heaven — " though I am lost, 
" Think not that guilt, that falsehood made me fall ; 
"No, no — 'twas grief, 'twas madness did it all! 
<'Nay, doubt me not — though all thy love hath ceased — 
" I know it hath — yet, yet believe, at least, 
" That every spark of reason's light must be 
" Quenched in this brain, ere I could stray from thee. 
" They told me thou wert dead — why, Azim, why 
"Did we not, both of us, that instant die 
" When we were parted ? ! couldst thou but know 
" With w^hat a deep devotedness of woe 
" I wept thy absence — o'er and o'er again 
" Thinking of thee, still thee, till thought grew pain, 
" And memory, like a drop that, night and day, 
" Falls cold and ceaseless, wore my heart away. 
" Didst thou but know how pale I sat at home, 
"My eyes still turned the way thou wert to come, 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 00 

«< And, all the long, long night of hope and fear, 
" Thy voice and step still sounding in my ear — 
" God ! thou wouldst not wonder that, at last, 
" When every hope was all at once o'ercast, 
"When I heard frightful voices round me say, 
^^Azim is dead! — this wretched brain gave way, 
"And I became a wreck, at random driven, 
" Without one glimpse of reason or of heaven — 
" All wild — and ev'n this quenchless love within 
" Turned to foul fires to light me into sin ! — 
" Thou pitiest me — I knew thou wouldst — that sky 
" Hath naught beneath it half so lorn as I. 
"The fiend, who lured me hither — hist! come near 
" Or thou too, thou art lost, if he should hear — 
" Told me such things — ! with such devilish art, 
" As would have ruined ev'n a holier heart — 
" Of thee, and of that ever- radiant sphere, 
" Where blessed at length, if I but served him here, 
"I should for ever live in thy dear sight, 
"And drink from those pure eyes eternal light. 
" Think, think how lost, how maddened I must be, 
" To hope that guilt could lead to God or thee ! . 
« Thou weep'st for me — do weep — O that I durst 
" Kiss off that tear ! but, no — these lips are cursed ; 
"They must not touch thee; — one divine caress, 
" One blessed moment of forgetfulness 



100 LALLA ROOKH. 

"I've had within those arms, and that shall lie, 

" Shrined in my soul's deep memory till I die; 

" The last of joy's last relics here below, 

" The one sweet drop, in all this waste of woe, 

"My heart has treasured from affection's spring, 

<' To soothe and cool its deadly withering! 

"But thou — yes, thou must go — for ever go; 

" This place is not for thee — for thee ! 0, no ; 

" Did I hut tell thee half, thy tortured brain 

"Would burn like mine, and mine go wild again! 

"Enough, that Guilt reigns here — that hearts, once good, 

" Now tainted, chilled, and broken, are his food. — 

" Enough, that we are parted — that there rolls 

" A flood of headlong fate between our souls, 

"Whose darkness severs me as wide from thee 

"As hell from heaven, to all eternity!" 

"Zelica, Zelica!" the youth exclaimed. 
In all the tortures of a mind inflamed 
Almost to madness — " by that sacred heaven, 
"Where yet, if prayers can move, thou'lt be forgiven, 
" As thou art here — here, in this writhing heart, 
"All sinful, wild, and ruined as thou art! — 
" By the remembrance of our once pure love, 
"Which, like a churchyard light, still burns above 
" The grave of our lost souls — which guilt in thee 
" Cannot extinguish, nor despair in me ! — 



VEILED PKOPHET OF K H O R A S S A N. IQJ 

I do conjure, implore thee to fly hence ; 
If thou hast yet one spark of innocence, 

Fly with me from this place " 

" With thee ! bliss ! 
'Tis worth whole yeai-s of torment to hear this. 
What ! take the lost one with thee ? — let her rove 
By thy dear side, as in those days of love. 
When we were both so happy, botli so pure — 
Too heavenly dream ! if there's on earth a cure 
For the sunk heart, 'tis this — day after day 
To be the blest companion of thy way ; 
To hear tliy angel eloquence — to see 
Those virtuous eyes for ever turned on me ; 
And, in their light re- chastened silently, 
Like the stained web that whitens in the sun, 
Grow pure by being purely shone upon ! 
And thou wilt pray for me — I know thou wilt : 
At the dim vesper hour, when thoughts of guilt 
Come heaviest o'er the heart, thou'lt lift thine eyes, 
Full of sweet tears, unto the darkening skies. 
And plead for me with Heaven, till I can. dare 
To fix my own weak, sinful glances there ; 
Till the good angels, when they see me cling 
For ever near thee, pale and sorrowing, 
Shall for thy sake pronounce my soul forgiven. 
And bid thee take thy weeping slave to heaven ! 
yes, I'll fly with thee " 



102 LALLAROOKH. 

Scarce had she said 
These breathless words, when a voice deep and dread 
As that of MoNKER, waking up the dead 
From their first sleep — so startling 'twas to both — 
Rung through the casement near, " Thy oath ! thy oath!" 
Heaven, the ghastliness of that Maid's look ! — 
" 'Tis he," faintly she cried, while terror shook 
Her inmost core, nor durst she lift her eyes, 
Though through the casement, now, naught but the skies 
And moonlight fields were seen, calm as before — 
" 'Tis he, and I am his — all, all is o'er ! 
" Go — fly this instant, or thou'rt ruined too — 
" My oath, my oath, God ! 'tis all too true, 
" True as the worm in this cold heart it is — 
" I am Mokanna's bride — his, Azim, his — 
" The Dead stood round us, while I spoke that vow, 
" Their blue lips echoed it — I hear them now ! 
"Their eyes glared on me, while I pledged that bowl — 
" 'Twas burning blood — I feel it in my soul ! 
" And the Veiled Bridegroom — hist ! I've seen to-night 
"What angels know not of — so foul a sight, 
" So horrible — ! never mayst thou see 
" What there lies hid from all but hell and me ! 
"But I must hence — Off, off— I am not thine, 
" Nor Heaven's, nor Love's, nor aught that is divine ! 
" Hold me not — Ha ! think'st thou the fiends that sever 
"Hearts, cannot sunder hands ? — Thus, then — for ever!" 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 105 

With all that strength which madness lends the weak, 
She flung away his arm, and, with a shriek, 
Whose sound, tliough he should linger out more years 
Than wretch e'er told, can never leave his ears — ■ 
Flew up through that long avenue of light, 
3^ Fleetly as some dark, ominous bird of night 
Across the sun, and soon was out of sight ! 



104 L A L L A R O O K H. 



Lalla Rookh could think of nothing all day but the 
misery of these two young lovers. Her gayety was gone, 
and she looked pensively even upon Fadladeen. She felt, 
too, without knowing why, a sort of uneasy pleasure in 
imagining that Azim must have been just such a youth as 
Feramorz ; just as worthy to enjoy all the blessings, without 
any of the pangs, of that illusive passion, which too often, 
like the sunny apples of Istkahar,"* is all sweetness on one 
side, and all bitterness on the other. 

As they passed along a sequestered river after sunset, 
they saw a young Hindoo girl upon the bank,'' whose 
employment seemed to them so strange, that they stopped 
their palankeens to observe her. She had lighted a small 
lamp, filled with oil of cocoa, and, placing it in an earthen 
dish, adorned with a wreath of flowers, had committed it 
with a trembling hand to the stream ; and was now anxiously 
watching its progress down the current, heedless of the gay 
cavalcade which had drawn up beside her. Lalla Rookh 



a « In the territory of Istkahar there is a kind of apple, half of wliich is sweet 
and half sour." — Ebn Haukal. 

^ For an account of this ceremony, see Grandpri^s Voyage in the Indian 
Ocean, 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 105 

was all curiosity; — when one of her attendants, who had 
lived upon the banks of the Ganges, (where this ceremony is 
so frequent, that often, in the dusk of the evening, the river 
is seen glittering all over with lights, like the Oton-tala or 
Sea of Stars,^) informed the Princess that it was the usual way 
in which the friends of those who had gone on dangerous 
voyages offered up vows for their safe return. If the lamp 
sunk immediately, the omen was disastrous: but if it went 
shining down the stream, and continued to burn till entirely 
out of sight, the return of the beloved object was considered 
as certain. 

Lalla Rookh, as they moved on, more than once looked 
back, to observe how the young Hindoo's lamp proceeded ; 
and, while she saw with pleasure that it was still unextin- 
guished, she could not help fearing that all the hopes of this 
life were no better than that feeble light upon the river. The 
remainder of the journey was passed in silence. She now, 
for the first time, felt that shade of melancholy, which comes 
over the youthful maiden's heart, as sweet and transient as 
her own breath upon a mirror; nor was it till she heard 
the lute of Feramorz, touched lightly at the door of her 
pavilion, that she waked from the reverie in which she had 



^ " The place where the Whangho, a river of Tibet, rises, and where there 
are more than a hundred springs, which sparkle like stars ; whence it is called 
Hotun-nor, that is, the Sea of Stars." — Description of Tibet in Pinkerton, 



106 LA L LA ROOK H. 

been wandering. Instantly her eyes were lighted up with 
pleasure ; and, after a few unheard remarks from Fadladeen 
upon the indecorum of a poet seating himself in presence 
of a Princess, every thing was arranged as on the preceding 
evening, and all listened with eagerness, while the story was 
thus continued :- — 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 107 



Whose are the gilded tents that crowd the way, 
Where all was waste and silent yesterday ? 
This City of War which, in a few short hours, 
Hath sprung up here,^ as if the magic powers 
Of Him who, in the twinkling of a star. 
Built the high pillared halls of Chilminar,'' 



^ "The Lescar or Imperial Camp is divided, lilie a regular town, iiito 
squares, alleys, and streets, and from a rising ground furnishes one of the most 
agreeable prospects in the world. Starting up in a few hours in an uninhabited 
plain, it raises the idea of a city built by enchantment. Even those who leave 
their houses in cities to follow the prince in his progress, are frequently so 
charmed v/ith the Lescar, when situated in a beautiful and convenient place, 
that they cannot prevail with themselves to remove. To prevent this inconve- 
nience to the court, the Emperor, after sufficient time is allowed to the tradesmen 
to follovvr, orders them to be burnt out of their tents." — Botu's Hindostan. 

Colonel Wilks gives a lively picture of an Eastern encampment: — "His 
camp, like that of most Indian armies, exhibited a motley collection of covers 
from the scorching sun and dews of the night, variegated according to the taste 
or means of each individual, by extensive enclosures of coloured calico surround- 
ing superb suites of tents; by ragged cloths or blankets stretched over sticks or 
Dranches ; palm leaves hastily spread over similar supports ; handsome tents and 
splendid canopies ; horses, oxen, elephants, and camels ; all intermixed without 
any exterior mark of order or design, except the flags of the chiefs, which usually 
mark the centres of a congeries of these masses ; the only regular part of the 
encampment being the streets of shops, each of which is constructed nearly in 
the maimer of a booth at an EngUsh fair." — Historical Sketches of the South of 
India. 

^ The edifices of Chilminar and Balbec are supposed to have been ouilt by 
the Genii, acting under the orders of Jan ben Jan, who governed the world long 
before the time of Adam. 



108 LALLA KOOKH. 



Had conjured up, far as the eye can see. 

This world of tents, and domes, and sunbright armoury : 

Princely pavilions, screened by many a fold 

Of crimson cloth, and topped with balls of gold : — 

Steeds, with their housings of rich silver spun, 

Their chains and poitrels glittering in the sun ; 

And camels, tufted o'er with Yemen's shells,'' 

Shaking in every breeze their light-toned bells . 

But yester-eve, so motionless around. 
So mute was this wide plain, that not a sound 
But the far torrent, or the locust bird'' 
Hunting among the thickets, could be heard ; — 
Yet hark ! what discords now, of every kind, 
Shouts, laughs, and screams are revelling in the wind ; 
The neigh of cavalry ; — the tinkling throngs 
Of laden camels and their drivers' songs ; '^ — 



a « A superb camel, ornamented with strings and tufts of small shells." — 
jili Bey. 

^ A native of Khorassan, and allured southward by means of the water of a 
fountain between Shiraz and Ispahan, called the Fountain of Birds, of which it 
is so fond that it will follow wherever that water is carried. 

c « Some of the camels have bells about their necks, and some about their 
legs, like those which our carriers put about their fore-horses' necks, which, 
together with the servants (who belong to the camels, and travel on foot) singing 
all night, make a pleasant noise, and the journey passes away dehghtfuUy." — 
Pitt's Account of the Mahometans. 

" The camel-driver follows the camels singing, and sometimes playing upon 
his pipe ; the louder he sings and pipes, the faster the camels go. Nay, they 
will stand still when he gives over his music." — Tavernier, 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. IQU 

Ringing of arms, and flapping in tlie breeze 
Of streamers from ten thousand canopies ; — 
War-music, bursting out from time to time, 
With gong and tymbalon's tremendous chime ; — 
Or, in the pause, when harsher sounds are mute, 
The mellow breathings of some horn or flute. 
That far off", broken by the eagle note 
Of th' Abyssinian trumpet,^ swell and float. 



Who leads this mighty army ! — ask ye " who ?" 
And mark ye not those banners of dark hue. 
The Night and Shadow,^ over yonder tent ? — 
It is the Caliph's glorious armament. 
Roused in his Palace by the dread alarms. 
That hourly came, of the false Prophet's arms, 
And of his host of infidels, who hurled 
Defiance fierce at Islam,'' and the world, — 
Though worn with Grecian warfare, and behind 
The veils of his bright Palace calm reclined. 
Yet brooked he not such blasphemy should stain, 
Thus unrevenged, the evening of his reign ; 



a " This trumpet is often called, in Abyssinia, nefser cano, which signifies 
the Note of the Eagle." — Note of Brucc's Editor. 

^ The two black standards borne before the Caliphs of the House of Abbas 
were called, allegorically, The Night and The Shadow. — See Gibbon, 

c The Mahometan religion. 

K 



110 LALLA ROOKH. 



But, having sworn upon the Holy Grave * 
To conquer or to perish, once more gave 
His shadowy banners proudly to the breeze, 
And with an army nursed in victories, 
Here stands to crush the rebels that o'errun 
His blest and beauteous Province of the Sun. 

Ne'er did the march of Mahadi display 
Such pomp before ; — not ev'n when on his way 
To Mecca's Temple, when both land and sea 
Were spoiled to feed the Pilgrim's luxury ; ^ 
When round him, mid the burning sands, he saw 
Fruits of the North in icy freshness thaw, 
And cooled his thirsty lip, beneath the glow 
Of Mecca's sun, with urns of Persian snow : "" — • 
Nor e'er did armament more grand than that 
Pour from the kingdoms of the Caliphat. 
First, in the van, the People of the Rock,^ 
On their light mountain steeds, of royal stock ; ® 



a " The .Persians swear by the Tomb of Shah Besade, who is buried at 
Casbin ; and wlien one desires another to asseverate a matter, he will ask him 
if he dare swear by the Holy Grave." — Sfruy. 

^ Mahadi, in a single pilgrunage to Mecca, expended six millions of dinars 
of gold. 

c Nivem Meccam apportavit, rem ibi aut nunquam aut raro visam. — Mvlfeda. 

d The inhabitants of Hejaz or Arabia Petrtea, called by an Eastern writer 
« The People of the Rock." — Ebn Haukah 

e « Those horses, called by the Arabians Kochlani, of whom a written 
genealogy has been kept for two thousand years. They are said to derive their 
origin from King Solomon's steeds." — Niebuhr. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. HI 

Then, chieftains of Damascus, proud to see 
The flashing of their swords' rich marquetry ; * 
Men from the regions near the Volga's mouth, 
Mixed witli the rude, black archers of the South ; 
And Indian lancers, in white-turbaned ranks, 
From the far Sinde, or Attock's sacred banks. 
With dusky legions from the Land of Myrrh,^ 
And many a mace-armed Moor, and Mid-sea islander. 



Nor less in number, though more new and rude 
In warfare's school, was the vast multitude 
That, fired by zeal, or by oppression wronged, 
Round the white standard of th' Impostor thronged, 
Beside his thousands of Believers — blind, 
Burning and headlong as the Samiel wind — 
Many w'ho felt, and more who feared to feel 
The bloody Islamite's converting steel. 
Flocked to his baimer ; — Chiefs of th' Uzbek race, 
Waving their heron crests with martial grace ; " 
Turkomans, countless as their flocks, led forth 
From th' aromatic pastures of the North ; 



a " Many of the figures on the blades of their swords are wrought in gold 
or silver, or in marquetry with small gems." — Asiat, Misc. v. i. 

^ Azab or Saba. 

<= " The chiefs of the Uzbek Tartars wear a plume of white heron's feathers 
in their turbans." — Accownt of Independent Tartary. 



112 LALLA ROOKH. 



Wild warriors of the turquoise hills," — and those 
Who dwell beyond tlie everlasting snows 
Of Hindoo Kosh,^ in stormy freedom bred, 
Their fort the rock, their camp the torrent's bed. 
But none, of all who owned the Chief's command, 
Rushed to that battle-field with bolder hand. 
Or sterner hate, than Iran's outlawed men, 
Her Worshippers of Fire" — all panting then 
For vengeance on th' accursed Saracen ; 
Vengeance at last for their dear country spurned 
Her throne usurped, and her bright shrines o'erturned. 
From Yezd's*^ eternal Mansion of the Fire, 
Where aged saints in dreams of heaven expire ; 
From Badku, and those fountahis of blue flame 
That burn into the Caspian,*^ fierce they came, 

a In the mountains of Nishapour and Tons (in lOiorassan) they 'find tur- 
quoises. — Ebn Haukal. 

b For a description of these stupendous ranges of mountains, see Elphin- 
stonc's Caubul. 

c The Ghebers or Guebres, those original natives of Persia, who adhered to 
their ancient faith, the rehgion of Zoroaster, and who, after the conquest of tlieir 
country by the Arabs, were either persecuted at home, or forced to become wan- 
derers abroad. 

d « Yezd, the chief residence of those ancient natives, who worship the Sun 
and the Fire, which latter they have carefully kept lighted, without being once 
extinguished for a moment, about three thousand years, on a mountain near 
Vezd, called Ater Quedah, signifying the House or Mansion of the Fire. He 
is reckoned veiy unfortunate who dies off that mountain." — Stephoi's Persia. 

e " When the weather is hazy, the springs of naphtha (on an island near 
Baku) boil up the higher, and the naphtha often takes fire on the surface of the 
earth, and runs in a flame into the sea to a distance almost incredible." — Han 
way on the Everlasting Fire at Baku. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 113 

Careless for what or whom the blow was sped. 
So vengeance triumphed, and their tyrants bled. 

Such was the wild and miscellaneous host, 
That high in air their motley banners tossed 
Around the Prophet-Chief — all eyes still bent 
Upon that glittering Veil, where'er it went. 
That beacon through the battle's stormy flood, 
That rainbow of the field, whose showers were blood' 

Twice hath the sun upon their conflict set, 
And risen again, and found them grappling yet ; 
While streams of carnage, in his noontide blaze, 
Smoke up to heaven — hot as that crimson haze. 
By which the prostrate Caravan is awed,'* 
In the red Desert, when the wind's abroad. 
" On, Swords of God !" the panting Caliph calls, 
"Thrones for the living — heaven for him who falls!" — 
" On, brave avengers, on," Mokanna cries, 
" And Eblis blast the recreant slave that flies !" 
Now comes the brunt, the crisis of the day — 
They clash — they strive — the Caliph's troops give way ! 



a Savary says of the south wind, which blows in Egypt from February to 
May, "Sometimes it appears only in the shape of an impetuous whirlwind, 
which passes rapidly, and is fatal to the traveller, surprised in the middle of the 
deserts. Torrents of burning sand roll before it, the firmament is enveloped 
in a thick veil, and the sun appears of the colour of blood. Sometimes whole 
caravans are buried in it." 

K 2 



114 LALLAROOKH. 

Mokanna's self plucks the black Banner down, 

And now the Orient World's Imperial crown 

Is just within his grasp — when, hark, that shout ! 

Some hand hath checked the flying Moslem's rout ; 

And now they turn, they rally — at their head 

A warrior, (like those angel youths who led. 

In glorious panoply of Heaven's own mail. 

The Champions of the Faith through Beder's vale,*) 

Bold as if gifted with ten thousand lives. 

Turns on the fierce pursuers' blades, and drives 

At once the multitudinous torrent back — 

"While hope and courage kindle in his track ; 

And, at each step, his bloody falchion makes 

Terrible vistas through which victory breaks ! 

In vain Mokanna, midst the general flight. 

Stands, like the red moon, on some stormy night. 

Among the fugitive clouds, that, hurrying by. 

Leave only her unshaken in the sky — 

In vain he yells his desperate curses out, 

Deals death promiscuously to all about. 

To foes that charge and coward friends that fly, 

And seems to all the Great Arch-enemy. 

The panic spreads — "A miracle!" throughout 

The Moslem ranks, "a miracle!" they shout. 



^ In the great victory gained by Mahomed at Beder, he was assisted, say the 
Mussulmans, 'by three thousand angels, led by Gabriel, mounted on liis horse 
Hiazum. — Seo The Koran and its Commentators. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. II5 

All gazing on that youth, whose coming seems 
A light, a glory, such as breaks in dreams ; 
And every sword, true as o'er billows dim 
The needle tracks the load-star, following him ! 



Right towards Mokanna now he cleaves his path, 
Impatient cleaves, as though the bolt of wrath 
He bears from Heaven withheld its awful burst 
From weaker heads, and souls but halfway cursed, 
To break o'er Him, the mightiest and the worst ! 
But vain his speed — though, in that hour of blood, 
Had all God's seraphs round Mokanna stood. 
With swords of fire, ready like fate to fall, 
Mokanna's soul would have defied them all, 
Yet now, the rush of fugitives, too strong 
For human force, hurries ev'n him along : 
In vain he struggles mid the wedged array 
Of flying thousands — he is borne away ; 
And the sole joy his baffled spirit knows. 
In this forced flight, is — murdering as he goes ! 
As a grim tiger, whom the torrent's might 
Surprises in some parched ravine at night, 
Turns, ev'n in drowning, on the wretched flocks, 
Swept with him in that snow-flood from the rocks, 
And, to the last, devouring on his way. 
Bloodies the stream he hath not power to stay. 



116 L A L L A R K H. 

"Alia ilia Alia!" — the glad shout renew — 
"Alia Akbar !" ^— the Caliph's in Merou. 
Hang out your gilded tapestry in the streets, 
And light your shrines and chant your ziraleets.* 
The Swords of God have triumphed — on his throne 
Your Caliph sits, and the Veiled Chief hath flown. 
Who does not envy that young warrior now. 
To whom the Lord of Islam bends his brow. 
In all the graceful gratitude of power, 
For his throne's safety in that perilous hour ? 
Who doth not wonder, when, amidst th' acclaim 
Of thousands, heralding to heaven his name, — 
Mid all those holier harmonies of fame. 
Which sound along the path of virtuous souls, 
Like music round a planet as it rolls, — 
He turns away — coldly, as if some gloom 
Hung o'er his heart no triumphs can illume ; — 
Some sightless grief, upon whose blasted gaze 
Though glory's light may play, in vain it plays. 
Yes, wretched Azim ! thine is such a grief. 
Beyond all hope, all terror, all relief; 
A dark, cold calm, which nothing now can break. 
Or warm, or brighten, — like that Syrian Lake," 

a The Tecbir, or cry of the Arabs. " Alia Acbar !" says Ockley, means, 
« Uod is most mighty." 

t> The ziralcet is a kind of chorus, which the women of the East sing upon 
joyful occasions. — Rusfel, 

c Tlie Dead Sea, which contains neither animal nor vegetable life. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 117 

Upon whose surface morn and summer shed 
Their smiles in vain, for all beneath is dead ! — 
Hearts there have been, o'er which this weight of woe 
Came by long use of suffering, tame and slow ; 
But thine, lost youth ! was sudden — over thee 
It broke at once, when all seemed ecstasy ; 
When Hope looked up, and saw the gloomy Past 
Melt into splendour, and Bliss dawn at last — 
'Twas then, ev'n then, o'er joys so freshly blown, 
This mortal blight of misery came down ; 
Ev'n then, the full, warm gushings of thy heart 
"Were checked — like fount- drops, frozen as they start — • 
And there, like them, cold, sunless relics hang. 
Each fixed and chilled into a lasting pang. 



One sole desire, one passion now remains 
To keep life's fever still within his veins, — 
Vengeance ! — dire vengeance on the wretch who cast 
O'er him and all he loved that ruinous blast. 
For this, when rumours reached him in his flight 
Far, far away, after that fatal night, — 
Rumours of armies, thronging to th' attack 
Of the Veiled Chief, — for this he winged him back, 
Fleet as the vulture speeds to flags unfurled, 
And, when all hope seemed desperate, wildly hurled 
Himself into the scale, and saved a world. 



118 LALLAROOKH. 

For this he still lives on, careless of all 
The wreaths that Glory on his path lets fall ; 
For this alone exists — like lightning-fire, 
To speed one bolt of vengeance, and expire ! 

But safe as yet that Spirit of Evil lives ; 
With a small band of desperate fugitives, 
The last sole stubborn fragment, left unriven. 
Of the proud host that late stood fronting Heaven, 
He gained Merou — breathed a short curse of blood 
O'er his lost throne — then passed the Jihon's flood,* 
And gathering all, whose madness of belief 
Still saw a Saviour in their downfallen Chief, 
Raised the white baimer within Neksheb's gates," 
And there, untamed, th' approaching conqueror waits. 

Of all his Haram, all that busy hive. 
With music and with sweets sparkling alive. 
He took but one, the partner of his flight, 
One — not for love — not for her beauty's light — • 
No, Zelica stood withering midst the gay, 
'^an as the blossom that fell yesterday 
From th' Alma tree and dies, while overhead 
To-day's young flower is springing in its stead.* 



"■ The ancient Oxus. ^ A city of Transoxiana. 

«! " You can never cast your eyes on this tree, but you meet there either 
blossoms or fruit ; and as the blossom drops underneath on the ground, (which 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 119 

0, not for love — the deepest Damned must be 

Touched with Heaven's glory, ere such fiends as he 

Can feel one glimpse of Love's divinity. 

But no, she is his victim ; — there lie all 

Her charms for him — charms that can never pall, 

As long as hell within his heart can stir. 

Or one faint trace of Heaven is left in her. 

To work an angel's ruin, — to behold 

As white a page as Virtue e'er unrolled 

Blacken, beneath his touch, into a scroll 

Of damning sins, sealed with a burning soul— 

This is his triumph ; this the joy accursed, 

That ranks him among demons all but first : 

This gives the victim, that before him lies 

Blighted and lost, a glory in his eyes, 

A light like that with which hell-fire illumes 

The ghastly, writhing wretch whom it consumes ! 



But other tasks now wait him — tasks that need 
All the deep daringness of thought and deed 
With which the Dives'" have gifted him — for mark. 
Over yon plains, which night had else made dark, 



is frequently covered with these purple-coloured flowers,) others coroe forth in 

their stead," &c. &c Nicuhoff, 

^ The Demons of the Persian mythology. 



120 L A L L A R O K H. 



Those lanterns, countless as the winged hghts 

That spangle India's fields on showery nights,"' — 

Far as their formidable gleams they shed. 

The mighty tents of the beleaguerer spread. 

Glimmering along th' horizon's dusky line. 

And thence in nearer circles, till they shine 

Among the founts and groves, o'er which the town 

In all its armed magnificence looks down. 

Yet, fearless, from his lofty battlements 

MoKANNA views that multitude of tents ; 

Nay, smiles to think that, though entoiled, beset. 

Not less than myriads dare to front him yet ; — 

That friendless, throneless, he thus stands at bay, 

Ev'n thus a match for myriads such as they. 

" for a sweep of that dark Angel's wing, 

" Who brushed the thousands of the Assyrian King'' 

" To darkness in a moment, that I might 

"People hell's chambers with yon host to-night! 

" But, come what may, let who will grasp the throne, 

" Caliph or Prophet, Man alike shall groan ; 

"Let who will torture him, Priest — Caliph — King — 

" Alike this loathsome world of his shall ring 

«' With victims' shrieks and bowlings of the slave, — 

"Sounds that shall glad me ev'n within my grave!" 

a Carreri mentions the fire-flies in India during the rainy season. See his 
Travels. 

•> Sennacherib, called by the Orientals King of Moussal. — D'Hcrbelol. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 121 



Thus to himself — but to the scanty train 

Still left around him, a far different strain : — 

<' Glorious Defenders of the sacred Crown 

" I bear from Heaven, whose light nor blood shall drown 

"Nor shadow of earth eclipse ; — before whose gems 

" The paly pomp of this world's diadems, 

" The crown of Gerashid, the pillared throne 

" Of Parviz,'^ and the heron crest that shone," 

"Magnificent, o'er Ali's beauteous eyes,*^ 

" Fade like the stars when morn is in the skies: 

" Warriors, rejoice — the port to which we've passed 

" O'er Destiny's dark wave, beams out at last! 

"Victory's our own — 'tis written in that Book 

"Upon whose leaves none but the angels look, 

" That Islam's sceptre shall beneath the power 

" Of her great foe fall broken in that hour, 

" When the moon's mighty orb, before all eyes, 

"From Neksheb's Holy Well portentously shall rise ! 

a Chosroes. For the description of his Throne or Palace, see Gibbon and 
D'HerbcloL 

There was said to be under this Throne or Palace of Khosrou Parviz a 
hundred vaults filled with " treasures so immense that some Mahometan writers 
tell us, their Prophet, to encourage his disciples, carried them to a rock, which 
at his command opened, and gave them a prospect tlirough it of the treasures of 
Khosrou.'" — Universal History. 

^ " The crown of Gerashid is cloudy and tarnished before the heron tuft of 
thy turban." — From one of the elegies or songs in praise of Ali, written in 
characters of gold round the gallery of Abbas's tomb. — See Chardi};. 

*= The beauty of Ali's eyes was so remarkable, that whenever the Persian- 
would describe any tiling as very lovely, they say it is Ayn Hali, or the Eyes of 
Ali. — Char din. 

L 



122 L A L L A R O O K H. 



« Now turn and see !"- 



They turned, and as he spoke, 
A sudden splendour all around them broke, 
And they beheld an orb, ample and bright, 
Rise from the Holy Well,a and cast its light 
Round the rich city and the plain for miles," — 
Flinging such radiance o'er the gilded tiles 
Of many a dome and fair-roofed imaret 
As autumn suns shed round them when they set. 
Instant from all who saw th' illusive sign 
A murmur broke — " Miraculous ! divine !" 
The Gheber bowed, thinking his idol star 
Had waked, and burst impatient through the bar 
Of midnight, to inflame him to the war ; 
While he of Moussa's creed saw, in that ray, 
The glorious Light which, in his freedom's day. 
Had rested on the Ark,<= and now again 
Shone out to bless the breaking of his chain. 



a We are not told more of this trick of the Impostor, than that it was " una 
machine, qu'ii disoit etre la Lune." According to Richardson, the miracle is 
perpetuated in Nekscheb. — "Nakshab, the name of a city in Transoxiana, 
where they say there is a well, in which the appearance of the moon is to be 
seen night and day." 

^ "II amusa pendant deux mois le peuple de la ville de Nekhscheb, en 
faisant sortir toutes les nuits du fond d'un puits un corps lumineux semblable 
a Lune, qui portoit sa lumiere jusqu'a la distance de plusieurs milles." — 
D'Herbelot. Hence he was called,Sazendehmah, or the Moon-maker. 

c The Shechinah, called Sakinat in the Koran. — See Salens Note, chap. ii. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 123 

"To victory!" is at once the cry of all — 
Nor stands Mokanna loitering at tliat caU — • 
But instant the huge gates are flung aside, 
And forth, like a diminutive mountain-tide 
Into the boundless sea, they speed their course 
Right on into the Moslem's mighty force. 
The watchmen of the camp, — who, in their rounds, 
Had paused, and ev'n forgot the punctual sounds 
Of the small drum with which they count the night,* 
To gaze upon that supernatural light, — 
Now sink beneath an unexpected arm. 
And in a death-groan give their last alarm. 
" On for the lamps, that light yon lofty screen,'' 
" Nor blunt your blades with massacre so mean ; 
" There rests the Caliph — speed — one lucky lance 
"May now achieve mankind's deliverance." 
Desperate the die — such as they only cast, 
Who venture for a world, and stake their last. 
But Fate's no longer with him — blade for blade 
Springs up to meet them through the glimmering shade, 



a The parts of the night are made known as well by instruments of music, 
as by the rounds of the watchmen with cries and small drums. — See Burder's 
Oriental Customs, vol. i. p. 119. 

b The Serrapurda, high screens of red cloth, stiffened with cane, used to 
enclose a considerable space round the royal tents. — Notes on the Bahardanush. 

The tents of Princes were generally illuminated. Norden tells us that the 
tent of the Bey of Girge was distinguished from the other tents by forty lanterns 
being suspended before it. — See Harmer's Observations on Job. 



124 LALLAROOKH. 



And, as the clash is heard, new legions soon 
Pour to the spot, like bees of Kauzeroon* 
To the shrill timbrel's summons, — till, at length. 
The mighty camp swarms out in all its strength. 
And back to Neksheb's gates, covering the plain 
With randpm slaughter, drives th' adventurous train ; 
Among the last of whom the Silver Veil 
Is seen glittering at times, like the white sail 
Of some tossed vessel, on a stormy night. 
Catching the tempest's momentary light ! 

And hath not this brought the proud spirit low ? 
Nor dashed his brow, nor checked his daring ? No. 
Though half the wretches, whom at night he led 
To thrones and victory, lie disgraced and dead, 
Yet morning hears him, with unshrinking crest, 
Still vaunt of thrones and victory to the rest ; — 
And they believe him ! — 0, the lover may 
Distrust that look which steals his soul away ; — 
The babe may cease to think that it can play 
With heaven's rainbow; — alchy mists may doubt 
The shining gold their crucible gives out ; 
But Faith, fanatic Faith, once wedded fast 
To some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last. 



a « Fiom the groves of orange-trees at Kauzeroon the bees cull a celebrated 
honey." — Norie/s Travels. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN, 125 

And well tli' Impostor knew all lures and arts, 
That Lucifer e'er taught to tangle hearts ; 
Nor, mid these last bold workings of his plot 
Against men's souls, is Zelica forgot. 
Ill-fated Zelica ! had reason been 
Awake, through half the horrors thou hast seen. 
Thou never couldst have borne it — Death had come 
At once, and taken thy wrung spirit home. 
But 'twas not so — a torpor, a suspense 
Of thought, almost of life, came o'er the intense 
And passionate struggles of that fearful night. 
When her last hope of peace and heaven took flight ; 
And though, at times, a gleam of frenzy broke, 
As through some dull volcano's veil of smoke 
Ominous flashings now and then will start. 
Which show the fire's still busy at its heart ; 
Yet was she mostly wrapped in solemn gloom, — 
Not such as Azim's, brooding o'er its doom. 
And calm without, as is the brow of death, 
While busy worms are gnawing underneath — 
But in a blank and pulseless torpor, free 
From thought or pain, a sealed-up apathy. 
Which left her oft, with scarce one living thrill, 
The cold, pale victim of her torturer's wUl. 

Again, as in Merou, he had her decked 
Gorgeously out, the Priestess of the sect; 



126 LALLA ROOK H. 

And led her glittering forth before the eyes 

Of his rude train, as to a sacrifice, — 

Pallid as she, the young, devoted Bride 

Of the fierce Nile, when, decked in all the pride 

Of nuptial pomp, she sinks into his tide.'^ 

And while the wretched maid hung down her head, 

And stood, as one just risen from the dead, 

Amid that gazing crowd, the fiend would tell 

His credulous slaves it was some charm or spell 

Possessed her now, — and from that darkened trance 

Should dawn ere long their Faith's deliverance. 

Or if, at times, goaded by guilty shame. 

Her soul was roused, and words of wildness came, 

Instant the bold blasphemer would translate 

Her ravings into oracles of fate. 

Would hail Heaven's signals in her flashing eyes, 

And call her shrieks the language of the skies ! 



But vain at length his arts — despair is seen 
Gathering around ; and famine comes to glean 
All that the sword hath left unreaped : — in vain 
At morn aid eve, across the northern plain 



a « A custom, still subsisting at this day, seems to me to prove that the 
Egyptians formerly sacrificed a young virgin to the God of the Nile ; for they 
now make a stat-ue of earth in shape of a girl, to which they give the name of 
the Betrothed Bride, and throw it into the river." — Savary. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 127 

He looks impatient for the promised spears 

Of the wild Hordes and Tartar mountaineers ; 

They come not — while his fierce beleaguerers pour 

Engines of havoc in, unknown before,* 

And horrible as new;'' — javelins, that fly 

Inwreathed with smolcy flames through the dark sky, 

a That they knew the secret of the Greek fire among the Mussulmans early 
m the eleventh century, appears from Daw's Account of Mamood I. "When 
he arrived at Moultan, finding that the country of the Jits was defended by 
great rivers, he ordered fifteen hundred boats to be built, each of which he 
armed with six iron spikes, projecting fi-om their prows and sides, to prevent 
their being boarded by the enemy, who were very expert in that kind of war. 
When he had launched this fleet, he ordered twenty archers into each boat, and 
five others with fire-balls, to burn the craft of the Jits, and naphtha to set the 
whole river on fire." 

The agnee aster, too, in Indian poems, the instrument of Fire, whose flame 
cannot be extinguished, is supposed to signify the Greek Fire. — See Wilks's 
South of India, vol. i. p. 471. — And in the curious Javan poem, the Brata 
Yudha, given by Sir Stamford Raffles in his History of Java, we find, " He 
aimed at the heart of Soeta with the sharp-pointed Weapon of Fire." 

The mention of gunpowder as in use among the Arabians, long before its 
supposed discovery in Europe, is introduced by Ebn Fadhl, the Egyptian geo- 
grapher, who lived in the thirteenth century. "Bodies," he says, "in the form 
of scorpions, bound round and filled with nitrous powder, glide along, making a 
gentle noise ; then, exploding, they lighten, as it were, and burn. But there 
are others which, cast mto the air, stretch along like a cloud, roaring horribly, 
as thunder roars, and on all sides vomiting out flames, burst, bum, and reduce 
to cinders whatever comes in their way." The historian Ben Abdalla, in speak- 
ing of the sieges of Abulualid in the year of the Hegira 712, says, "A fiery 
globe, by means of combustible matter, with a mighty noise suddenly emitted, 
strikes with the force of lightning, and shakes the citadel." — See the extracts 
from Casiri's Biblioth. Arab. Hispan. in the Appendix to Berington's Literary 
History of the Middle Ages. 

^ The Greek fire, which was occasionally lent by the emperors to their allies. 
" It was," says Gibbon, " either launched in red-hot balls of stone and iron, or 
darted in arrows and javelins, twisted round with flax and tow, which had deeply 
imbibed the inflammable oil." 



128 L A L L A R O O K H. 

And red-hot globes, that, opening as they mount, 
Discharge, as from a kindled Naphtha fount,^ 
Showers of consuming fire o'er all below ; 
Looking, as through th' illumined night they go, 
Like those wild birds ^ that by the Magians oft. 
At festivals of fire, were sent aloft 
Into the air, with blazing fagots tied 
To their huge wings, scattering combustion wide. 
All night the groans of wretches who expire, 
In agony, beneath these darts of fire. 
Ring through the city — while, descending o'er 
Its shrines and domes and streets of sycamore, — 
Its lone bazaars, with their bright cloths of gold. 
Since the last peaceful pageant left unrolled, — 

a See Hamoay's Account of the Springs of Naphtha at Baku, (which is 
called by Lieutenant Pottinger Joala Mookee, or the Flaming Mouth,) taking 
fire and running into the sea. Dr. Cooke, in liis Journal, mentions some wells 
in Circassia, strongly impregnated with this inflammable oil, from which issues 
boiling water. "Though the weather," he adds, "was now very cold, the 
warmth of these wells of hot water produced near them the verdure and flowers 
of spring." 

Major Scott Waring says, that naphtha is used by the Persians, as we are 
told, it was in hell, for lamps ; 

many a row 

Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed 
With naphtha and asphaltus, yielding light 
As from a sky. 

tj « At the great festival of fiie, called the Sheb Seze, they used to set fire to 
large bunches of dry combustibles, fastened round wild beasts and birds, which 
being then let loose, the air and earth appeared one great illumination ; and, as 
these terrified creatures naturally fled to the woods for shelter, it is easy to con- 
ceive the conflagrations they produced." — Richardson's Dissertation. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 129 



Its beauteous marble baths, whose idle jets 
Now gush with blood, — and its tall minarets, 
That late have stood up in the evening glare 
Of the red sun, unhallowed by a prayer ; — 
O'er each, in turn, the dreadful flame-bolts fall. 
And death and conflagration throughout all 
The desolate city hold high festival ! 



MoKANNA sees the world is his no more ; — 
One sting at parting, and his grasp is o'er. 
"What! drooping now?" — thus, with unblushmg cheek, 
He hails the few, who yet can hear him speak, 
Of all those famished slaves around him lying. 
And by the light of blazing temples dying ; — 
' What ! — drooping now ? — now, when at length we press 
' Home o'er the very threshold of success ; 
' When Alla from our ranks hath thinned away 
' Those grosser branches, that kept out his ray 
' Of favour from us, and we stand at length 
< Heirs of his light and children of his strength, 
' The chosen few, who shall survive the fall 
« Of Kings and Thrones, triumphant over all ! 
' Have you then lost, weak murmurers as you are, 
' All faith in him, who was your Light, your Star ? 
' Have you forgot the eye of glory, hid 
Beneath this Veil, the flashing of whose lid 



130 L A L L A R U K H. 



" Could, like a sun-stroke of the desert, wither 

"Millions of such as yonder Chief brings hither? 

" Long have its lightnings slept — too long — but now 

<"' All earth shall feel th' unveiling of this brow ! 

" To-night — yes, sainted men ! this very night, 

" I bid you all to a fair festal rite, 

" Where — having deep refreshed each weary limb 

" With viands, such as feast Heaven's cherubim, 

"And kindled up your souls, now sunk and dim, 

" With that pure wine the Dark-eyed Maids above 

" Keep, sealed with precious musk, for those they love," 

" I will myself uncurtain in your sight 

" The wonders of this brow's ineffable light ; 

" Then lead you forth, and with a wink disperse 

"Yon myriads, howling through the universe !" 

Eager they listen — while each accent darts 
New life into their chilled and hope-sick hearts ; 
Such treacherous life as the cool draught supplies 
To him upon the stake, who drinks and dies ! 
Wildly they point their lances to the light 
Of the fast sinking sun, and shout "To-night!" — 
" To-night," their Chief re-echoes in a voice 
Of fiend-like mockery that bids hell rejoice. 



a "The righteous shall be given to drink of pure wine, sealed; the seal 
whereof shall be musk." — Koran, chap, Ixxxiii. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 1^1 

Deluded victims ! — never hath this earth 
Seen mourning half so mournful as their mirth. 
Here, to the few, whose iron frames had stood 
This racking waste of famine and of blood, 
Faint, dying wretches clung, from whom the shout 
Of triumph like a maniac's laugh broke out : — 
There, others, lighted by the smouldering fire, 
Danced, like wan ghosts about a funeral pyre. 
Among the dead and dying, strewed around ; — 
While some pale wretch looked on, and from his wound 
Plucking the fiery dart by which he bled, 
In ghastly transport waved it o'er his head ! 



'Twas more than midnight now — a fearful pause 
Had followed the long shouts, the wild applause, 
That lately from those Royal Gardens burst, 
Where the Veiled demon held his feast accursed, 
When Zelica — alas ! poor ruined heart. 
In every horror doomed to bear its part ! — 
Was bidden to the banquet by a slave, 
Who, while his quivering lip the summons gave, 
Grew black, as though the shadows of the grave 
Compassed him round, and, ere he could repeat 
His message through, fell lifeless at her feet ! 
Shuddering she went — a soulfelt pang of fear, 
A presage that her own dark doom was near. 



132 L A I. L A R O O K H. 



Roused every feeling, and brought Reason back 

Once more, to writhe her last upon the rack. 

All round seemed tranquil — ev'n the foe had ceased, 

As if aware of that demoniac feast, 

His iiery bolts ; and though the heavens looked red, 

'TAvas but some distant conflagration's spread. 

But hark — she stops — she listens — dreadful tone ! 

'Tis her tormentor's laugh — and now, a groan, 

A long death-groan comes with it ; — can this be 

The place of mirth, the bower of revelry ? 

She enters — Holy All a, what a sight 

Was there before her ! By the glimmering light 

Of the pale dawn, mixed with the flare of brands 

That round lay burning, dropped from lifeless hands. 

She saw the board, in splendid mockery spread, 

Rich censers breathing — garlands overhead — 

The urns, the cups, from which they late had quaffed. 

All gold and gems, but— what had been the draught ? 

! who need ask, that saw those livid guests, 

With their swollen heads sunk blackening on their breasts^ 

Or looking pale to Heaven with glassy glare, 

As if they sought but saw no mercy there ; 

As if they felt, though poison racked them through, 

Remorse the deadlier torment of the two ! 

While some, the bravest, hardiest in the train 

Of their false Chief, who on the battle-plain 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 133 

Would have met death with transport by his side, 
Here mute and helpless gasped ; — but, as they died. 
Looked horrible vengeance with their eyes' last strain. 
Ana clinched the slackening hand at him in vain. 

Dreadful it was to see the ghastly stare. 
The stony look of horror and despair. 
Which some of these expiring victims cast 
Upon their soul's tormentor to the last ; — 
Upon that mocking Fiend, whose Veil, now raised. 
Showed them, as in death's agony they gazed, 
Not the long promised light, the brow, whose beaming 
Was to come forth, all conquering, all redeeming. 
But features horribler than Hell e'er traced 
• On its own brood ; — no Demon of the Waste,'' 
No churchyard Ghole, caught lingering ih the light 
Of the bless'd sun, e'er blasted human sight 
With lineaments so foul, so fierce as those 
Th' Impostor now, in grinning mockery, shows : — 
" There, ye w^ise Saints, behold your Light, your Star — 
"Ye would be dupes and victims, and ye are. 
"Is it enough ? or must I, while a thrill 
" Lives in your sapient bosoms, cheat you still? 

^ « The Afghauns believe each of the numerous solitudes and deserts of their 
country to be inhabited by a lonely demon, whom they call the Ghoolee Beeabaij, 
or Spirit of the Waste, They often illustrate the wildness of any sequestered 
tribe, by saying, they are wild as the Demon of the Waste." — Elphinstone' s 
Caubul. 

M 



134 L A L L A R K H, 

« Swear that the burning death ye feel within 
" Is but the trance with which heaven's joys begin ; 
" That this foul visage, foul as e'er disgraced 
" Ev'n monstrous man, is — after God's own taste ; 
"And that — but see ! — ere I have halfway said 
u My greetings through, th' uncourteous souls are fled. 
" Farewell, sweet spirits ! not in vain ye die 
"If Eblis loves you half so well as I. — 
" Ha, my young bride ! — 'tis well — take thou thy seat ; 
"Nay, come — no shuddering — didst thou never meet 
" The Dead before ? — they graced our wedding, sweet ; 
"And these, my guests to-night, have brimmed so true 
"Their parting cups, that thou shalt pledge one too, 
"But — how is tliis? — all empty? — all drunk up ? 
" Hot lips have been before thee in the cup, 
" Young bride — yet stay — one precious drop remains, 
" Enough to warm a gentle Priestess' veins ; — 
< Here, drink — and should thy lover's conquering arms 
« Speed hither, ere thy lip lose all its charms, 
" Give him but half this venom in thy kiss, 
" And I'll forgive my haughty rival's bliss ! 



"For me — I too must die — but not like these 
"Vile, rankling things, to fester in the breeze ; 
"To have this brow in ruffian triumph shown, 
" With all death's grimness added to its own. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 135 

" And rot to dust beneath the taunting eyes 

" Of slaves, exclaiming, ' There his Godship lies!' 

" No — cursed race — since first my soul drew breath, 

" They've been my dupes, and shall be ev'n in death. 

" Thou seest yon cistern in the shade — 'tis filled 

" With burning drugs, fiar this last hour distilled : ^ — 

" There will I plunge me, in that liquid flame — 

" Fit bath to lave a dying Prophet's firame ! — 

" There perish, all — ere pulse of thine shall fail — 

"Nor leave one limb to tell mankind the tale. 

" So shall my votaries, wheresoe'er they rave, 

" Proclaim that Heaven took back the Saint it gave ; — 

" That I've but vanished from this earth awhile, 

" To come again, with bright, unshrouded smile ! 

" So shall they build me altars in their zeal, 

"Where knaves shall minister, and fools shall kneel ; 

" Where Faith may mutter o'er her mystic spell, 

"Written in blood — and Bigotry may swell 

" The sail he spreads for heaven with blasts from hell ! 

" So shall my banner, through long ages, be 

" The rallying sign of fraud and anarchy ; — 

" Kings yet unborn shall rue Mokanna's name, 

" And, though I die, my spirit, still the same, 

a «I1 donna du poison dans le vin a tons ses gens, et se jetta lui-meme 
ensuite dans une cuve pleine de drogues brulantes et consumantes, afin qu'il ne 
restelt rien de tous les membres de son corps, et que ceux qui restoient de sa 
secte puissent croire qu'il etoit monte au ciel, ce qui ne manqua pas d'arriver." — 
D'Htrbeht. 



136 L A L L A R O K H. 

" Shall walk abroad in all the stormy strife, 
"And guilt, and blood, that were its bliss in life. 
" But, hark ! their battering engine shakes the wall — 
a Why, let it shake — thus I can brave them all. 
"No trace of me shall greet them, when they come, 
"And I can trust thy faith, for — thou'lt be dumb. 
" Now mark how readily a wretch like me, 
"In one bold plunge, commences Deity!" 

He sprung and sunk, as the last words were said- 
Quick closed the burning waters o'er his head, 
And Zelica was left — within the ring 
Of those wide walls the only living thing ; 
The only wretched one, still cursed with breath, 
In all that frightful wilderness of death ! 
More like some bloodless ghost — such as, they tell, 
In the Lone Cities of the Silent^ dwell. 
And there, unseen of all but Alla, sit 
Each by its own pale carcass, watching it. 

But morn is up, and a fresh warfare stirs 
Throughout the camp of the beleaguerers. 



a « They have all a great reverence for burial-grounds, wrhich they sometimes 
call by the poetical name of Cities of the Silent, and which they people with the 
ghosts of the departed, who sit each at the head of liis own grave, invisible to 
naortal eyes." — Elphinstone. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 137 

Their globes of fire (the dread artillery lent 

By Greece to conquering Mahadi) are spent ; 

And now the scorpion's shaft, the quarry sent 

From high balistas, and the shielded throng 

Of soldiers swinging the huge ram along, 

All speak th' impatient Islamite's intent 

To try, at length, if tower and battlement 

And bastioned wall be not less hard to win, 

Less tough to break down, than the hearts within. 

First in impatience and in toil is he, 

The burning Azim — ! could he but see 

Th' Impostor once alive within his grasp, 

Not the gaunt lion's hug, nor boa's clasp, 

Could match that gripe of vengeance, or keep pace 

With the fell heartiness of Hate's embrace. 

Loud rings the ponderous ram against the walls ; 
Now shake the ramparts, now a buttress falls, 
But still no breach — " Once more, one mighty swing 
" Of all your beams, together thundering!" 
There — the wall shakes — the shouting troops exult, 
"Quick, quick discharge your weightiest catapult 
" Right on that spot, and Neksheb is our own !" 
'Tis done — the battlements come crashing down, 
And the huge wall, by that stroke riven in two, 
Yawning, like some old crater, rent anew, 
Shows the dim, desolate city smoking through. 

m2 



138 L A L L A R O K H. 



But strange ! no signs of life — naught living seen 
Above, beloW' — what can this stillness mean ? 
A minute's pause suspends all hearts and eyes — 
<' In through the breach," impetuous Azim cries ; 
But the cool Caliph, fearful of some wile 
In this blank stillness, checks the troops awhile. — 
Just then, a figure, with slow step, advanced 
Forth from the ruined walls, and, as there glanced 
A sunbeam over it, all eyes could see 
The well-known Silver Veil!—" 'Tis He, 'tis He, 
"MoKANNA, and alone!" they shout around; 
Young Azim from his steed springs to the ground — 
"Mine, Holy Caliph! mine," he cries, "the task 
"To crush yon daring wretch — 'tis all I ask." 
Eager he darts to meet the demon foe. 
Who still across wide heaps of ruin slow 
And falteringly comes, till they are near ; 
Then, with a bound, rushes on Azim's spear. 
And, casting off the Veil in falling, shows— 
! — 'tis his Zelica's life-blood that flows I 



"I meant not, Azim," soothingly she said, 
As on his trembling arm she leaned her head. 
And, looking in his face, saw anguish there 
Beyond all wounds the quivering flesh can bear — 
" I meant not thm shouldst have the pain of this :- 
" Though death, with thee thus tasted, is a bliss 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 139 

" Thou wouldst not rob me of, didst thou but know 
"How oft I've prayed to God I might die so ! 
"But the Fiend's venom was too scant and slow ; — 
" To linger on were maddening — and I thought 
"If once that Veil — nay, look not on it — caught 
" The eyes of your fierce soldiery, I should be 
" Struck by a thousand death- darts instantly. 
" But this is sweeter — ! believe me, yes — 
"I would not change this sad, but dear caress, 
" This death within thy arms I would not give 
" For the most smiling life the happiest live ! 
" All, that stood dark and drear before the eye 
" Of my strayed soul, is passing swiftly by ; 
" A light comes o'er me from those looks of love, 
" Like the first dawn of mercy from above ; 
" And if thy lips but tell me I'm forgiven, 
"Angels will echo the blest words m heaven! 
"But live, my Azim ; — ! to call thee mine 
"Thus once again! my Azim — dream divine! 
" Live, if thou ever lov'dst me, if to meet 
" Thy Zelica heieailer would be sweet, 
"0, live to pray for her — to bend the knee 
" Morning and night before that Deity, 
" To whom pure lips and hearts without a stain, 
" As thme are, Azim, never breathed in vain, — 
"And pray that He may pardon her, — may take 
" Compassion on her soul for thy dear sake, 



140 LALLA ROOKH. 



" And, naught remembering but her love to thee, 

"Make her all thine, all His, eternally! 

"Go to those happy fields were first we twined 

" Our youthful hearts together — every wind 

" That meets thee there, fresh from the well-known 

flowers, 
<' Will bring the sweetness of those innocent hours 
" Back to thy soul, and thou mayst feel again 
"For thy poor Zelica as thou didst then. 
" So shall thy orisons, like dew that flies 
" To heaven upon the morning's sunshine, rise 
"With all love's earliest ardour to the skies! 
"And should they — but alas! my senses fail — 
" for one minute ! — should thy prayers prevail — 
" If pardoned souls may — from that World of Bhss, 
" Reveal their joy to those they love in this — 
"I'll come to thee — in some sweet dream — and tell — 
" Heaven — I die — dear love! farewell, farewell." 

Time fleeted — years on years had passed away, 
A.nd few of those who, on that mournful day. 
Had stood, with pity in their eyes, to see 
The maiden's death, and the youth's agony. 
Were living still — when, by a rustic grave. 
Beside the swift Amoo's transparent wave, 
An aged man, who had grown aged there 
By that lone grave, morning and night in prayer. 



VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN. 141 

For the last time knelt down — and, though the shade 

Of death hung darkening over him, there played 

A gleam of rapture on his eye and cheek, 

That brightened even Death — like the last streak 

Of intense glory on the horizon's brim. 

When night o'er all the rest hangs chill and dim. 

His soul had seen a Vision, while he slept ; 

She, for whose spirit he had prayed and wept 

So many years, had come to him, all dressed 

In angel smiles, and told him she was blessed ! 

For this the old man breathed his thanks, and died. — 

And there, upon the banks of that loved tide, 

He and his Zelica sleep side by side. 



142 LALLA ROOKH. 



The story of the Veiled Prophet of Khorassan being 
ended, thev were now doomed to hear Fadladeen's criti- 
cisms upon it. A series of disappointments and accidents had 
occurred to this learned Chamberlain during the journey. In 
the first place, those couriers, stationed, as in the reign of 
Shah Jehan, between Delhi and the western coast of India, to 
secure a constant supply of mangoes for the Royal Table, had, 
by some cruel irregularity, failed in their duty ; and to eat any 
mangoes but those of Mazagong was, of course, impossible.'' 
In the next place, the elephant, laden with his fine antique 
porcelain,* had, in an unusual fit of liveliness, shattered the 
whole set to pieces: — an irreparable loss, as many of tlie 



a " The celebrity of Mazagong is owing to its mangoes, which are certainly 
the best fruit I ever tasted. The parent-tree, from which all those of this 
species have been grafted, is honoured during the fruit-season by a guard of 
sepoys; and in the reign of Shah Jehan, couriers were stationed between Delhi 
and the Mahratta coast, to secure an abundant and fresh supply of mangoes for 
the royal table." — Mrs. Grahanis Journal of a Residence in India. 

^ This old porcelain is found in digging, and "if it is esteemed, it is not 
because it has acquired any new degree of beauty in the earth, but because it 
has retained its ancient beauty ; and this alone is of great importance in China, 
where they give large sums for the smallest vessels which were used under the 
Emperors Yan and Chun, who reigned many ages before the dynasty of Tang, 
at which time porcelain began to be used by the Emperors," (about the year 
442.) — Dunnes Collection of curious Observations, &c. ; — a bad translation of 
some parts of t'ne Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses of the Missionary Jesuits. 



LALLA ROOKH 143 

vessels were so exquisitely old, as to have been used under 
the Emperors Yan and Chun, who reigned many ages before 
the dynasty of Tang. His Koran, too, supposed to be the 
identical copy between the leaves of which Mahomet's 
favourite pigeon used to nestle, had been mislaid by his 
Koran-bearer three whole days ; not without much spiritual 
alarm to Fadladeen, who, though professing to hold, with 
other loyal and orthodox Mussulmans, that salvation could 
only be found in the Koran, was strongly suspected of believ- 
ing in his heart, that it could only be found in his own par- 
ticular copy of it. When to all these grievances is added the 
obstinacy of the cooks, in putting the pepper of Canara into 
his dishes instead of the cinnamon of Serendib, we may easily 
suppose that he came to the task of criticism with, at least, a 
sufficient degree of irritability for the purpose. 

<«In order," said he, importantly swinging about his 
chaplet of pearls, "to convey with clearness my opinion of 
the story this young man has related, it is necessary to take a 

review of all the stories that have ever " — "My good 

Fadladeen!" exclaimed the Princess, interrupting him, "we 
really do not deserve that you should give yourself so much 
trouble. Your opinion of the poem we have just heard, will, 
I have no doubt, be abundantly edifying, without any further 
waste of your valuable erudition." — "If that be all," replied 
the critic, — evidently mortified at not being allowed to show 
how much he knew about every thing but the subject imme- 



144 LALLA ROOKH 



diately before him — " if that be all that is required, the matter 
is easily despatched." He then proceeded to analyze the 
poem, in that strain, (so well known to the unfortunate bards 
of Delhi,) whose censures were an infliction from which few 
recovered, and whose very praises were like the honey ex- 
tracted from the bitter flowers of the aloe. The chief person- 
ages of the story were, if he rightly understood them, an ill- 
favoured gentleman, with a veil over his face ; — a young lady, 
whose reason went and came, according as it suited the poet's 
convenience to be sensible or otherwise ; — and a youth in one 
of those hideous Bucharian bonnets, who took the aforesaid 
gentleman in a veil for a Divinity. " From such materials," 
said he, " what can be expected ? — after rivalling each other 
in long speeches and absurdities, through some thousands of 
lines as indigestible as the filberts of Berdaa, our friend in the 
veil jumps into a tub of aquafortis ; the young lady dies in a 
set speech, whose only recommendation is that it is her last ; 
and the lover lives on to a good old age, for the laudable 
purpose of seeing her ghost, which he at last happily accom- 
plishes, and expires. This, you will allow, is a fair summary 
of the story ; and, if Nasser, the Arabian merchant, told no 
better, our Holy Prophet (to whom be all honour and glory!) 
had no need to be jealous of his abilities for story-telling."'' 

a «La lecture de ces Fables plaisoit si fort aux Arabcs, que, quand Mahomet 
les entretenoit de I'Histoire de I'Ancien Testament, ils les meprisoient, lui disant 
que celles que Nasser leur racontoient etoient beaucoup plus belles. Cette 
preference attira a Nasser la malediction de Mahomet et de tous scs disciples." 
—D'Hcrbeht. 



LALLA ROOKH. 145 

With respect to the style, it was worthy of the matter ; — it 
had not even those poHtic contrivances of structure, which 
make up for the commonness of the thoughts by the pecu- 
liarity of the manner, nor that stately poetical phraseology by 
which sentiments mean in themselves, like the blacksmith's * 
apron converted into a banner, are so easily gilt and embroi- 
dered into consequence. Then, as to the versification, it was, 
to say no worse of it, execrable ; it had neither the copious 
flow of Ferdosi, the sweetness of Hafez, nor the sententious 
march of Sadi ; but appeared to him, in the uneasy heaviness 
of its movements, to have been modelled upon the gait of 
a very tired dromedary. The licenses, too, in which it in- 
dulged, were unpardonable ; — for instance this line, and the 
poem abounded with such, — 

Like the faint, exquisite music of a dream. 

"What critic that can count," said Fadladeen, "and has 
his full complement of fingers to count withal, would tolerate 
for an instant such syllabic superfluities ?" — He here looked 
round, and discovered that most of his audience were asleep ; 
while the glimmering lamps seemed inclined to follow their 
example. It became necessary, therefore, however painful to 
himself, to put an end to his valuable animadversions for the 
present, and he accordingly concluded, with an air of dignified 



» The blacksmith Gao, who successfully resisted the tyrant Zohak, and 
whose apron became the Royal Standard of Persia. 

N 



146 L ALL A RO OKH. 

candour, thus : — " Notwithstanding the observations which I 
have thought it my duty to make, it is by no means my wish 
to discourage the young man — so far from it, indeed, that if 
he will but totally alter his style of writing and thinking, I 
have very little doubt that I shall be vastly pleased w^ith him." 

Some days elapsed, after this harangue of the Great 
Chamberlain, before Lalla Rookh could venture to ask for 
another story. The youth was still a welcome guest in the 
pavilion — to one heart, perhaps, too dangerously welcome ; — 
but all mention of poetry was, as if by common consent, 
avoided. Though none of the party had much respect for 
Fadladeen, yet his censures, thus magisterially delivered, 
evidently made an impression on them all. The Poet himself, 
to whom criticism was quite a new operation, (being v;holly 
unknown in that Paradise of the Indies, Cashmere,) felt the 
shock as it is generally felt at first, till use has made it more 
tolerable to the patient; — the Ladies began to suspect that 
they ought not to be pleased, and seemed to conclude that 
there must have been much good sense in what Fadladeen 
said, fi-om its having set them all so soundly to sleep ; — while 
the self-complacent Chamberlain was left to triumph in the 
idea of having, for the hundred and fiftieth time in his life, 
extinguished a Poet. Lalla Rookh alone — and Love knew 
why — persisted in being delighted with all she had heard, 
and in resolving to hear more as speedily as possible. Her 
manner, however, of first returning to the subject was 



LALLA ROOKH, I47 

unlucky. It was while they rested, during the heat of noon, 
near a fountain, on which some hand had rudely traced those 
well-known words from the Gai'den of Sadi, — "Many, like 
me, have viewed this fountain, but they are gone, and their 
eyes are closed for ever!" — that she took occasion, from the 
melancholy beauty of this passage, to dwell upon the charms 
of poetry in general. "It is true," she said, "few poets can 
imitate that sublime bird, which flies always in the air, and 
never touches the earth : '^ — it is only once in many ages a 
Genius appears, whose words, like those on the Written 
Mountain, last for ever : ^ — but still there are some, as delight- 
ful, perhaps, though not so wonderful, who, if not stars over 



a « The Huma, a bird peculiar to the East. It is supposed to fly constantly 
in the air, and never touch the ground ; it is looked upon as a bird of happy 
omen; and that every head it overshades will in time wear a crown." — 
JRichardson. 

In the terms of alliance made by Fuzzel Oola Khan with Hyder in 1760, 
one of the stipulations was, " that he should have the distinction of two honorary 
attendants standing behind him, holding fans composed of the feathers of the 
humma, according to the practice of his family." — Wilks's South of India. He 
adds in a note, — " The Humma is a fabulous bird. The head over which its 
shadow once passes will assuredly be circled with a crown. The splendid little 
bird suspended over the throne of Tippoo Sultaun, found at Scringapatam in 
1799, was intended to represent this poetical fancy." 

'' " To the pilgrims to Mount Sinai we must attribute the inscriptions, figures, 
&c., on those rocks, which have from thence acquired the name of the Written 
Mountain." — Volney. M. Gebelin and others have been at much pains to attach 
some mysterious and important meaning to these inscriptions ; but Niebuhr, as 
well as Volney, thinks that they must have been executed at idle hours by the 
travellers to Mount Sinai, "who were satisfied with cutting the unpolished 
rock with any pointed instrument ; adding to their names and the date of their 
journeys some rude figures, which bespeak the hand of a people but little skilled 
in the arts." — Niebuhr. 



148 LALLA ROOKH. 

our head, are at least flowers along our path, and whose 
sweetness of the moment we ought gratefully to inhale, 
without calling upon them for a brightness and a durability 
beyond their nature. In short," continued she, blushing, as 
if conscious of being caught in an oration, "it is quite cruel 
that a poet cannot wander through his regions of enchantment, 
without having a critic for ever, like the old Man of the Sea, 
upon his back!'"' — Fadladeen, it was plain, took this last 
luckless allusion to himself, and would treasure it up in his 
mind as a whetstone for his next criticism. A sudden silence 
ensued ; and the Princess, glancing a look at Feramorz, 
saw plainly she must wait for a more courageous moment. 

But the glories of Nature, and her wild, fragrant airs, 
playing freshly over the current of youtliful spirits, will soon 
heal even deeper wounds than the dull Fadladeens of this 
world can inflict. In an evening or two after, they came 
to the small Valley of Gardens, which had been planted by 
order of the Emperor, for his favourite sister Rochinara, 
during their progress to Cashmere, some years before ; and 
never was there a more sparkling assemblage of sweets, since 
the Gulzar-e-Irem, or Rose-bower of Irem. Every precious 
flower was there to be found, that poetry, or love, or religion 
has ever consecrated ; from the dark hyacinth, to which 
Hafez compares his mistress's hair,'' to the Cdmalatd, by 

a The Story of Sinbad. ^ See Nott's Hafez, Ode v. 



L A L L A R O O K H. 149 

whose rosy blossoms the heaven of Indra is scented.* As 
they sat in the cool fragrance of this delicious spot, and 
Lai LA RooKH remarked that she could fancy it the abode of 
that Flower-loving Nymph whom they worship in the temples 
of Kathay,^ or of one of those Peris, those beautiful creatures 
of the air, who live upon perfumes, and to whom a place like 
this might make some amends for the Paradise they have 
lost, — ^the young Poet, in whose eyes she appeared, while 
she spoke, to be one of the bright spiritual creatures she 
was describing, said, hesitatingly, that he remembered a 
Story of a Peri, which, if the Princess had no objection, 
he would venture to relate. "It is," said he, with an 
appealing look to Fadladeen, "in a lighter and humbler 
strain than the other:" then, striking a few careless but 
melancholy chords on his kitar, he thus began : — 



a « The Camalata, (called by Linnseus, Ipomaea) is the most beautiful of its 
order, both in the colour and form of its leaves and flowers ; its elegant blossoms 
are ' celestial rosy red, Love's proper hue,' and have justly procured it the name 
of Camalata, or Love's Creeper."— Sir W. Jones, 

" Camalata. may also mean a mythological plant, by which all desires are 
granted to such as inhabit the heaven of Indra ; and if ever flower was worthy 
of paradise, it is our charming Ipomaea." — lb. 

*• "According to Father Premare, in his tract on Chmese Mythology, the 
mother of Fo-hi was the daughter of heaven, sumamed Flower-loving , and, as 
the nymph was walking alone on the bank of a river, she found herself encircled 
by a rainbow, after which she became pregnant, and, at the end of twelve years, 
■was delivered of a son radiant as herself." — Asiat. Res. 



h2 



PAEADISE AND THE PEUL 



One morn a Peri, at the gate 
Of Eden stood, disconsolate ; 
And as she listened to the Springs 

Of life within, like music flowing. 
And caught the light upon her wings 

Through the half-open portal glowing, 
She wept to think her recreant race 
Should e'er have lost that glorious place ! 



" How happy," exclaimed this child of air, 
"Are the holy Spirits who wander there, 

"Mid flowers that never shall fade or fall? 
" Though mine are the gardens of earth and sea, 
" And the stars themselves have flowers for me, 

" One blossom of heaven outblooms them all! 



P A R A D I S E A N D T H E P E R I. I51 

" Though sunny the Lake of cool Cashmere, 
"With its plane-tree Isle reflected clear,'^ 

"And sweetly the founts of that Valley fall ; 
" Though bright are the waters of Sing-su-hay, 
"And the golden floods that thitherward stray," 
"Yet — 0, 'tis only the Blessed can say 

"How the waters of Heaven outshine them all! 

"Go, wing thy flight from star to star, 
" From world to luminous world, as far 

" As the universe spreads its flaming wall : 
" Take all the pleasures of all the spheres, 
" And multiply each through endless years, 

" One minute of Heaven is worth them all !" 

The glorious Angel, who was keeping 
The gates of Light, beheld her weeping : 
And, as he nearer drew and listened 
To her sad song, a tear-drop glistened 
Within his eyelids, like the spray 

From Edin's fountain, when it lies 
On the blue flower, which — Bramins say — 

Blooms nowhere but in Paradise."^ 

^ " Numerous small islands emerge from the Lake of Cashmere. One is 
called Char Chenaur, from the plane-trees upon it." — Foster. 

b « The Altan Kol or Golden river of Tibet, which runs into the Lakes of 
Sing-su-hay, has abundance of gold in its sands, which employs the inhabitants 
all the summer in gathering it." — Descriplion of Tibet in Pinkcrton. 

c " The Brahmins of this province insist that the blue campac flowers onlv 



152 LALLAROOKH. 

" Nymph of a fair but erring line !" 
Gently he said — " One hope is thine. 
" 'Tis \ATitten in the Book of Fate, 

" The Peri yet may he forgiven 
" Who brings to this Eternal Gate 

" The Gift that is. most dear to Heaven! 
" Go, seek it, and redeem thy sin — 
" 'Tis sweet to let the Pardoned in," 



Rapidly as comets run 

To th' embraces of the Sun, 

Fleeter than the starry brands 

Flung at night from angel hands ^ 

At those dark and daring sprites 

Who would climb th' empyreal heights, 

Down the blue vault the Peri flies, 

And, lighted earthward by a glance 
That just then broke from morning's eyes. 

Hung hovering o'er our world's expanse. 



in Paradise." — Sir W. Jones. It appears, however, from a curious letter of the 
Sultan of Menangcabow, given by Marsden, that one place on earth may lay 
claim to the possession of it. « Tliis is the Sultan, who keeps the flower cham- 
paka that is blue, and to be found in no other country but his, being yellow 
elsewhere." — Marsden's Sumatra. 

a "The Manometans suppose that falling stars are the firebrands wherewith 
the good angels drive away the bad, when they approach too near the empyrean 
or verge of the heavens." — Fryer. 



PARADISE AND THE PERI. 153 



But whither shall the Spirit go 

To find this gift for Heaven ? — " I know 

" The wealth," she cries, " of every urn, 

" In which unnumbered rubies burn, 

"Beneath the pillars of Chilminar;^ 

" I know where the Isles of Perfume are,^ 

" Many a fathom down in the sea, 

" To the south of sunbright Araby ; " 

" I know, too, where the Genii hid 

" The jewelled cup of their King Jamshid,'' 

" With Life's elixir sparkling high. 

"But gifts like these are not for the sky: 

"Where was there ever a gem that shone 

" Like the steps of Alla's wonderful Throne ? 

"And the Drops of Life — ! what would they be 

"In the boundless Deep of Eternity ?" 

While thus she mused, her pinions fanned 
The air of that sweet Indian land, 

^ The Forty Pillars; so the Persians call the ruins of Persepolis. It is 
imagined by them that this palace and the edifices at Balbec were built by 
Genii, for the purpose of hiding in their subterraneous caverns immense treasures, 
which still remain there." — D' Herbelot, Volney. 

!> Diodorus mentions the Isle of Panchaia, to the south of Arabia Felix, whei-e 
there was a temple of Jupiter. This island, or rather cluster of isles, has dis- 
appeared, "sunk (says Grandprd) in the abyss made by the fire beneath then: 
foundations." — Voyage to the Indian Ocean, 

" The isles of Panchaia. 

<i « The cup of Jamsliid, discovered, they say, when digging for the founda- 
tions of Persepolis." — Richardson. 



154 L A L L A ROOK H. 



Whose air is balm ; whose ocean spreads 
O'er coral rocks and amber beds ;* 
Whose mountains, pregnant by the beam 
Of the warm sun, with diamonds team ; 
Whose rivulets are like rich brides, 
Lovely, with gold beneath their tides ; 
Whose sandal groves and bowers of spice 
Might be a Peri's Paradise ! 
But crimson now her rivers ran 

With human blood — the smell of death 
Came reeking from those spicy bowers, 
And man, the sacrifice of man, 

Mingled his taint with every breath 
Upwafted from the innocent flowers. 

Land of the Sun ! what foot invades 
Thy Pagods and thy pillared shades^' — • 



* « It is not like the Sea of India, whose bottom is rich with pearls and- 
ambergris, whose mountains of the coast are stored witli gold and precious stones, 
whose gulfs breed creatures that yield ivory, and among the plants of whose 
shores are ebony, red wood, and the wood of Hairzan, aloes, camphor, cloves, 
Bandal-wood, and all other spices and aromatics ; where parrots and peacocks 
are birds of the forest, and musk and civet are collected upon the lands." — ■ 
travels of Two Mohammedans. 

t" in the ground 

The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow 
About the mother tree, a pillared shade, 
High over-arched, and echoing walks between. — Miitox. 
For a particular description and plate of the Banyan-tree, see Cor diner's 
Ceylon. 



PARADISE AND THE PERI. I55 

Thy cavern shrines, and Idol stones, 

Thy Monarchs and their thousand Thrones ? * 

'Tis He of Gazna'' — fierce in wrath 

He conies, and India's diadems 
Lie scattered in his ruinous path. — 

His bloodhounds he adorns with gems, 
Torn from the violated necks 

Of many a young and loved Sultana ; " 

Maidens, within their pure Zenana, 

Priests in the very fane he slaughters, 
And chokes up with the glittering wrecks 

Of golden shrines the sacred waters ! -' 

Downward the Peri turns her gaze. 
And, through the war-field's bloody haze 
Beholds a youthful warrior stand. 

Alone beside his native river, — 
The red blade broken in his hand. 

And the last arrow in his quiver. 



a « With this immense treasure Mamood returned to Ghizni, and in the year 
400 prepared a magnificent festival, where he displayed to the people his wealth 
in golden thrones and in other ornaments, in a great plain without the city of 
Ghizni." — Ferishta. 

^ " Mahmood of Gazna, or Ghizni, who conquered India in the beginning 
of the eleventh century." — See his History in Dow and Sir /. Malcoim. 

c "It is reported that the hunting equipage of the Sultan Mahmood was so 
magnificent, that he kept four hundred greyhounds and bloodhounds, each of 
which wore a collar set with jewels, and a covering edged with gold £ind pearls " 
— Universal History, vol. iii. 



156 " LALLAROOKH. 

"Live," said the Conqueror, "live to share 

" The trophies and the crowns I bear !" 

Silent that youthful warrior stood — 

Silent he pointed to the flood 

All crimson with his country's blood, 

Then sent his last remaining dart, 

For answer to th' Invader's heart. 

False flew the shaft, though pointed well ; 
The Tyrant lived, the Hero fell!— 
Yet marked the Peri where he lay. 

And, when the rush of war was past. 
Swiftly descending on a ray 

Of morning light, she caught the last — 
Last glorious drop his heart had shed. 
Before its freeborn spirit fled ! 

" Be this," she cried, as she winged her flight, 
" My welcome gift at the Gates of Light. 
" Though foul are the drops that oft distil 
" On the field of warfare, blood like this, 
" For Liberty shed, so holy is,* 



^ Objections may be made to my use of the word Liberty in this, and more 
especially in the story that follows it, as totally inapplicable to any state of 
things that has ever existed in the East; but though I cannot, of course, mean 
to employ it in that enlarged and noble sense which is so well understood at the 
present day, and, I grieve to say, so little acted upon, yet it is no disparage- 
ment to the word to apply it to that national independence, that freedom from 



PARADISE AND THE PERI. 157 

" It would not stain the purest rill, 

" That sparkles among the Bowers of Bliss ! 
" 0, if there be, on this earthly sphere, 
"A boon, an offering Heaven holds dear, 
" 'Tis the last libation Liberty draws 
"From the heart that bleeds and breaks in her cause!" 

"Sweet," said the Angel, as she gave 

The gift into his radiant hand, 
" Sweet is our welcome of the Brave 

" Who die thus for their native Land. — • 
" But see — alas ! — the crystal bar 
" Of Eden moves not — holier far 
" Than ev'n this drop the boon must be, 
" That opes the Gates of Heaven for thee !" 

■ Her first fond hope of Eden blighted. 

Now among Afric's lunar Mountains, 
Far to the South, the Peri lighted ; 

And sleeked her plumage at the fountains 



the interference and dictation of foreigners, without which, indeed, no hberty 
of any kind can exist ; and for which both Hindoos and Persians fought against 
their Mussulman invaders with, in many cases, a bravery that deserved much 
better success. 

a "The Mountains of the Moon, or the Montes Lunse of antiquity, at the 
foot of which the Nile is supposed to arise." — Bruce. 

"Sometimes called," says Jackson, "Jibbel Kumrie, or the white or lunar- 
coloured mountains ; so a white horse is called by the Arabians a moon-coloured 
horse." 

O 



158 LALLA ROOKH. 

Of that Egyptian tide — whose birth 
Is hidden from the sons of earth 
Deep in those soHtary woods, 
Where oft the Genii of the Floods 
Dance round the cradle of their Nile, 
And hail the new-born Giant's smile.* 
Thence over Egypt's palmy groves. 

Her grots, and sepulchres of Kings,'' 
The exiled Spirit sighing roves : 
And now hangs listening to the doves 
In warm Rosetta's vale " — now loves 

To watch the moonlight on the wings 
Of the white pelicans that break 
The azure calm of Mceris' Lake.'^ 
'Twas a fair scene — a Land more bright 

Never did mortal eye behold ! 
Who could have thought, that saw this night 

Those valleys and their fruits of gold 
Basking in Heaven's serenest light ; — 
Those groups of lovely date-trees bending 

Languidly their leaf-crowned heads. 



a « The Nile, which the Abyssinians know by the names of Abey and 
Alawy, or the Giant." — Aslat. Research, vol. i. p. 387. 

•^ See Ferry's View of the Levant for an account of the sepulclires in Upper 
Thebes, and the numberless grots, covered all over with hieroglyphics, in the 
mountains of Upper Egypt. 

<= "The orchards of Rosetta are filled with turtle-doves." — Sonnini. 

•1 Savary mentions the pelicans upon Lake Moeris. 



PARADISE AND THE PERI. 159 

Like youthful maids, when sleep descending 

Warns them to their silken beds ; '^ — 
Those virgin lilies, all the night 

Bathing their beauties in the lake, 
That they may rise more fresh and bright, 

When their beloved Sun's awake ; — 
Those ruined shrines and towers that seem 
The relics of a splendid dream ; 

Amid whose fairy loneliness 
Naught but the lapwing's cry is heard. 
Naught seen but (when the shadows, flitting 
Fast from the moon, unsheath its gleam,) 
Some purple-winged Sultana ^ sitting 

Upon a column, motionless 
And glittering like an Idol bird ! — 
Who could have thought, that there, ev'n there. 
Amid those scenes so still and fair 
The Demon of the Plague hath cast 
From his hot wing a deadlier blast. 
More mortal far than ever came 
From the red Desert's sands of flame ! 



a « The superb date-tree, whose head languidly reclines, lilce that of a hand- 
some woman overcome with sleep." — Dafard el Hadad. 

^ « That beautiful bird, with plumage of the finest shining blue, with 
purple beak and legs, the natural and living ornament of the temples and 
palaces of the Greeks and Romans, which, from the stateliness of its pon, 
as well as the brilliancy of its colours, has obtained the title of Sultana."— 
Sonnini. 



160 L A L L A R O K H. 

So quick, that every living thing 

Of human shape, touched by his wing, 

Like plants, where the Simoom hath passed, 

At once falls black and withering ! 

The sun went down on many a brow. 

Which, full of bloom and freshness then, 
Is rankling in the pest-house now. 

And ne'er will feel tliat sun again. 
And, ! to see th' unburied heaps 
On which the lonely moonlight sleeps — 
The very vultures turn away 
And sicken at so foul a prey ! 
Only the fierce hysena stalks^ 
Throughout the city's desolate walks" 
At midnight, and his carnage plies : 

Woe to the half- dead wretch, who meets 
The glaring of those large blue eyes '^ 

Amid the darkness of the streets ! 



a Jackson, speaking of the plague that occurred in West Barbary, when he 
was there, says, « The birds of the air fled away from the abodes of men. The 
hyaenas, on the contrary, visited the cemeteries," &c. 

^ « Gondar was full of hyasnas from the time it turned dark, till the dawn 
of day, seeking the different pieces of slaughtered carcasses, which this cruel 
and unclean people expose in the streets without burial, and who firmly be- 
lieve that these animals are Falashta from the neighbouring mountains, trans- 
formed by magic, and come down to eat human flesh in the dark in safety." — 
Bimce. 

o Bruce. 



PARADISE AxND THE PERI. IGl 

" Poor race of men !" said the pitying Spirit, 

" Dearly ye pay for your primal fall — 
" Some flowerets of Eden ye still inherit, 

"But the trail of tlie Serpent is over them all!" 
She wept — the air grew pure and clear 

Around her, as the bright drops ran ; 
For there's a magic in each tear, 

Such kindly Spirits weep for man ! 

Just then beneath some orange- trees, 
Whose fruit and blossoms in the breeze 
Were wantoning together, free. 
Like age at play with infancy — 
Beneath that fresh and springing bower. 

Close by the Lake, she heard the moan 
Of one who, at this silent hour, 

Had thither stolen to die alone. 
One who in life, where'er he moved. 

Drew after him the hearts of many ; 
Yet now, as though he ne'er were loved. 

Dies here unseen, unwept by any ! 
None to watch near him — none to slake 

The fire that in his bosom lies. 
With ev'n a sprinkle from that lake. 

Which shines so cool before his eyes. 
No voice, well known through many a day. 

To speak the last, the parting word, 

o2 



163 L A L L A R O K H. 

Which, when all other sounds decay, 
Is still like distant music heard ; — 
That tender farewell on the shore 
Of this rude world, when all is o'er, 
Which cheers the spirit, ere its bark 
Puts off mto the unknown Dark. 

Deserted youth ! one thought alone 

Shed joy around his soul in death — 
That she, whom he for years had known. 
And loved, and might have called his own, 

Was safe from this foul midnight's breath,- 
Safe in her father's princely halls. 
Where the cool airs from fountain falls. 
Freshly perfumed by many a brand 
Of the sweet wood from India's land, 
Were pure as she whose brow they fanned. 

But see — who yonder comes by stealth,* 
This melancholy bower to seek. 

Like a young envoy, sent by Health, 
With rosy gifts upon her cheek ? 

'Tis she — far off, through moonlight dim, 
He knew his own betrothed bride. 



a This circumstance has often been introduced into poetry ;- -by Vincentius 
Fabricius, by Darwin, and lately, with very powerful efiect, by Mr. Wilsoa 



PARADISE AND THE PERI. 163 

She, who would rather die witli him, 

Than live to gain the world beside ! — 
Her arms are round her lover now, 

His livid cheek to hers she presses, 
And dips, to bind his burning brow. 

In the cool lake her loosened tresses. 
Ah ! once, how little did he think 
An hour would come, when he should shrink 
With horror from tliat dear embrace. 

Those gentle arms, that were to him 
Holy as is the cradling place 

Of Eden's infant cherubim! 
And now he yields — now turns away. 
Shuddering as if the venom lay 
All in those proffered lips alone — 
Those lips that, then so fearless grown, 
Never until that instant came 
Near his unasked or without shame. 
" ! let me only breathe the air, 

"The blessed air, that's breathed by thee, 
" And, whether on its wings it bear 

"Healing or death, 'tis sweet to me! 
" There — drink my tears, while yet they fall — 

" Would that my bosom's blood were balm ! 
« And, well thou know'st, I'd shed it all, 

" To give thy brow one minute's calm. 



164 LALLAROOKH. 



" Nay, turn not from me that dear face — 

" Am I not thine — thy own loved bride — 
« The one, the chosen one, whose place 

« In life or death is by thy side ? 
"Think'st thou that she, whose only light, 
^ " In this dim world, from thee hath shone, 
" Could bear the long, the cheerless night, 

"That must be hers when thou art gone? 
" That I can live, and let thee go, 
"Who art my life itself? — No, no, — 
" When the stem dies, the leaf that grew 
" Out of its heart must perish too ! 
" Then turn to me, my own love, turn, 
"Before, like thee, I fade and burn; 
" Cling to these yet cool lips, and share 
" The last pure life that lingers there !" 
She fails — she sinks — as dies the lamp 
In charnel airs, or cavern-damp. 
So quickly do his baleful sighs 
Quench all the sweet light of her eyes. 
One struggle — and his pain is past — 

Her lover is no longer living ! 
One kiss the maiden gives, one last. 

Long kiss, which she expires in giving' 

"Sleep," said the Peri, as softly she stole 
The farewell sigh of that vanishing soul, 



PARADIvSE AND THE PERI. 165 

As true as e'er warmed a woman's breast — 
" Sleep on, in visions of odour rest, 
" In balmier airs than ever yet stirred 
" Th' enchanted pile of that lonely bird, 
" Who sings at the last his own death-lay,* 
"And in music and perfume dies away!" 

Thus saying, from her lips she spread 

Unearthly breathings through the place. 
And shook her sparkling wreath, and shed 

Such lustre o'er each paly face. 
That like two lovely saints they seemed. 

Upon the eve of doomsday taken 
From their dim graves, in odour sleeping : 

While that benevolent Peri beamed 
Like their good angel, calmly keeping 

Watch o'er them till their souls would waken. 

But morn is blushing in the sky ; 

Again the Peri soars above. 
Bearing to Heaven that precious sigh 

Of pure self-sacrificing love. 



a "In the East, they suppose the Phoenk to have fifty orifices in His bill, 
which are continued to his tail ; and that, after living one thousand years, he 
builds himself a funeral pile, sings a melodious air of difierent harmonies 
through his fifty organ pipes, flaps his wings with a velocity wliich sets fire to 
the wood, and consumes himself." — Richardson. 



^66 LALLA ROOKH. 

High throbbed her heart, with hope elate, 

The Elysian palm she soon shall win. 
For the bright Spirit at the gate 

Smiled as she gave that offering in ; 
And she already hears the trees 

Of Eden, with their crystal bells 
Ringing in that ambrosial breeze 

That from the throne of Alla swells ; 
And she can see the starry bowls 

That lie around that lucid lake. 
Upon whose banks admitted Souls 

Their first sweet draught of glory take ! "" 
But ah ! even Peris' hopes are vain — 
Again the Fates forbade, again 
Th' immortal barrier closed — "Not yet," 
The angel said as, with regret. 
He shut from her that glimpse of glory — 
" True was the maiden, and her story. 
" Written in Hght o'er Alla's head, 
" By seraph eyes shall long be read. 
"But, Peri, see — the crystal bar 
" Of Eden moves not — holier far 
"Than ev'n this sigh the boon must be 
" That opes the Gates of Heaven for thee." 

a « On the shores of a quadrangular lake stand a thousand goblets, made of 
stars, out of which souls predestined to enjoy felicity diink the crystal wave." — 
From Chateaubriand's Description of the Mahometan Paradise, in his Beauties 
of Christianity. 



PARADISE AN D THE PE RI. ]07 

Now, upon Syria's land of roses ^ 
Softly tlie light of Eve reposes, 
And, like a glory, the broad sun 
Hangs over sainted Lebanon ; 
Whose head in wintry grandeur towers, 

And whitens with eternal sleet. 
While summer, in a vale of flowers. 

Is sleeping rosy at his feet. 

To one, who looked from upper air 
O'er all th' enchanted regions there, 
How beauteous must have been the glow, 
The life, the sparkling from below ! 
Fair gardens, shining streams, with ranks 
Of golden melons on their banks, 
More golden where the sunlight falls ; — 
Gay lizards, glittering on the walls ^ 
Of ruined shrines, busy and bright 
As they were all alive with light ; — 
And, yet more splendid, numerous flocks 
Of pigeons, settling on the rocks, 



^ Richardson thinks that Syria had its name from Suri, a beautiful and deli 
cate species of rose, for which that country has been always famous ; — hence, 
Suristan, the Land of Roses. 

^ "The number of lizards I saw one day in the great court of the Temple 
of the Sun at Balbec amounted to many thousands ; the ground, the walls, and 
stones of the ruined buildings, were covered with them." — Bruce. 



168 L A L L A R O O K H. 

With their rich restless wings, that gleam 
Variously in the crimson beam 
Of the warm West, — as if inlaid 
With brilliants from the mine, or made 
Of tearless rainbows, such as span 
Th' unclouded skies of Peristan. 
And then the mingling sounds that come. 
Of shepherd's ancient reed,** with hum 
Of the wild bees of Palestine,'' 

Banqueting through the flowery vales ; 
And, Jordan, those sweet banks of thine, 

And woods, so full of nightingales." 

But naught can charm the luckless Peri ; 
Her soul is sad — her wings are weary — 
Joyless she sees the Sun look down 
On that great Temple, once his own,'' 
Whose lonely columns stand sublime. 

Flinging their shadows from on high, 
Like dials, which the wizard. Time, 

Has raised to count his ages by ! 



a « The Syrinx or Pan's pipe is still a pastoral instrument in Syria." — Russcl. 

^ « Wild bees, frequent in Palestine, in hollow trunks or branches of trees, 
and the clefts of rocks. Thus it is said, (Psalm Ixxxi.,) < honey out of the stony 
rock' " — Biirder's Oriental Customs. 

c « The river Jordan is on both sides beset with little, thick, and pleasant 
■woods, among which thousands of nightingales warble all together." — Thevcnot. 

d The Temple of the Sun at Balbcc. 



PARADISE AND THE PERI. 169 

Yet haply there may he concealed 

Beneath those Chambers of the Sun, 
Some amulet of gems, annealed 
In upper fires, some tablet sealed 

With the great name of Solomon, 

Which, spelled by her illumined eyes. 
May teach her where, beneath the moon, 
In earth or ocean, lies the boon. 
The charm, that can restore so soon 

An erring Spirit to the skies. 

Cheered by this hope, she bends her thither ; — 

Still laughs the radiant eye of Heaven, 

Nor have the golden bowers of Even 
In the rich West begun to wither ; — 
When, o'er the vale of Balbec winging 

Slowly, she sees a child at play, 
Among the rosy %vild flowers singing. 

As rosy and as wild as they ; 
Chasing, with eager hands and eyes. 
The beautiful blue damsel-flies,*^ 
That fluttered round the jasmine stems, 
Like winged flowers or flying gems ; — 



* « You behold there a considerable number of a remarkable species of beau- 
tiful insects, the elegance of whose appearance, and their attire, procured for them 
the name of Damsels." — Sonnini. 

P 



170 LALLA ROOKH. 

And, near the boy, who, tired with play. 
Now nesthng mid the roses lay, 
She saw a wearied man dismount 

From his hot steed, and on the brink 
Of a small imaret's rustic fount a 

Impatient fling him down to drink. 
Then swift his haggard brow he turned 

To the fair child, who fearless sat. 
Though never yet hath daybeam burned 

Upon a brow more fierce than that, — 
Sullenly fierce — a mixture dire. 
Like thunder-clouds, of gloom and fire ; 
In which the Peri's eye could read 
Dark tales of many a ruthless deed ; 
The ruined maid — the shrine profaned — 
Oaths broken — and the tlireshold stained 
With blood of guests ! — there written, all, 
Black as the damning drops that fall 
From the denouncing Angel's pen, 
Ere Mercy weeps them out again. 

Yet tranquil now that man of crime 
(As if the balmy evening time 



a Imaret, "hospice ou on loge et noun it, gratis, les p^Ierins pendant trois 
jours." — Toderini, translated by the jlb'od de Cournand. — See also CastedarCs 
Moeurs des Othomans, torn. v. p. 145. 



PARADISE AND THE PERI. ]71 

Softened his spirit) looked and lay, 
Watching the rosy infant's play : — 
Though still, whene'er his eye by chance 
Fell on the boy's, its lurid glance 

Met that unclouded, joyous gaze, 
As torches, that have burnt all night 
Through some impure and godless rite, 

Encounter morning's glorious rays. 

But, hark ! the vesper call to prayer, 

As slow the orb of daylight sets. 
Is rising sweetly on the air, 

From Syria's thousand minarets ! 
The boy has started from the bed 
Of flowers, where he had laid his head, 
And down upon the fragrant sod 

Kneels,^ with his forehead to the south, 



^ " Such Turks as at the common hours of prayer are on the road, or so 
employed as not to find convenience to attend the mosques, are still obliged to 
execute that duty ; nor are they ever known to fail, vi^hatever business they are 
then about, but pray immediately when the hour alarms them, whatever they are 
about, in that very place they chance to stand on; insomuch that when a 
janissary, whom you have to guard you up and down the city, hears the notice 
which is given him from the steeples, he will turn about, stand still, and beckon 
with his hand, to tell his charge he must have patience for a while ; when, 
taking out his handkerchief, he spreads it on the ground, sits cross-legged there- 
upon, and says his prayers, though in the open market, which having ended, 
he leaps briskly up, salutes the person whom he undertook to convey, and 
renews his journey with the mild expression of Gliell gohmmm ghell, or Come, 
dear, follow me." — Aaron HiTs Travels. 



172 LALLAROOKH. 

Lisping th' eternal name of God 

From Purity's own cherub mouth, 
And looking, while his hands and eyes 
Are lifted to the glowing skies. 
Like a stray babe of Paradise, 
Just lighted on that flowery plain. 
And seeking for its home again. 
! 'twas a sight — that heaven — that child — 
A scene, which might have well beguiled 
Even haughty Eblis of a sigh 
For glories lost and peace gone by ! 

And how felt /le, the wretched Man 

Reclining there — while memory ran 

O'er many a year of guilt and strife, 

Flew o'er the dark flood of his life. 

Nor found one sunny resting-place. 

Nor brought him back one branch of grace ? 

"There was a time," he said, in mild, 
Heart-humbled tones, " thou blessed child ! 
"When, young, and haply pure as thou, 
" I looked and prayed like thee — but now — '* 
He hung his head — each nobler aim, 

And hope, and feeling, which had slept 
From boyhood's hour, that instant came 

Fresh o'er him, and he wept — he wept ! 



PARADISE AND THE P E ill. 17^$ 



Blest teai-s of soul-felt penitence ! 

In whose benign, redeeming flow 
Is felt the first, the only sense 

Of guiltless joy that guilt can know. 



"There's a drop," said the Peri, "that do\vn from the 

moon 
« Falls through the withering airs of June 
"Upon Egypt's land,*" of so healing a power, 
*' So balmy a virtue, that ev'n in the hour 
" That drop descends, contagion dies, 
" And health re-animates earth and skies ! — 
" O, is it not thus, thou man of sin 

" The precious tears, of repentance fall? 
" Though foul thy fiery plagues within, 

" One heavenly drop hath dispelled them all !" 



And now — behold him kneeling there 
By the child's side, in humble prayer, 
While the same sunbeam shines upon 
The guilty and the guiltless one, 
And hymns of joy proclaim through Heaven 
The triumph of a Soul Forgiven ! 

"■ The Nucta, or Miraculous Drop, which falls in Egypt precisely on St. 
John's day, in June, and is supposed to have the eflect of stopping the plague. 



174 LALLA ROOKH. 

'Twas when the golden orb had set, 
While on their knees they lingered yet. 
There fell a light more lovely far 
Than ever came from sun or star. 
Upon the tear that, warm and meek, 
Dewed that repentant sinner's cheek. 
To mortal eye this light might seem 
A northern flash or meteor beam — 
But well th' enraptured Peri knew 
'Twas a bright smile the Angel threw 
From Heaven's Gate, to hail that tear 
Her harbinger of glory near ! 



" Joy, joy for ever! my task is done — 

" The Gates are passed, and Heaven is won ! 

" ! am I not happy? I am, I am — 

"To thee, sweet Eden! how dark and sad 
"Are the diamond turrets of Shadukiam,* 

"And the fragrant bowers of Amberabad! 



"Farewell, ye odours of earth, that die 
" Passing away like a lover's sigh ; — 



a The Coiintry of Delight — the name of a province in the kingdom of Jin- 
nistan, or Fairy Land, the capital of which is called the City of Jewels. Am» 
berabad is another of the cities of Jinnistaii. 



PARADISE AND THE PERI. 175 

" My feast is now of the Tooba Tree,* 
" Whose scent is the breath of Eternity ! 
"Farewell, ye vanishing flowers, that shone 

"In my fairy wreath, so bright and brief; 
" ! what are the brightest that e'er have blown, 
<' To the lote-tree, springing by Alla's throne,'' 

" Whose flowers have a soul in every leaf! 
" Joy, joy for ever ! — my task is done — 
"The Gates are passed, and Heaven is won!" 



^ The tree Tooba, that stands in Paradise, in the palace of Mahomet. See 
Salens Prelim. Disc. — Tooba, says D'Herbelot, signifies beatitude, or eternal 
happiness. 

^ Mahomet is described, in the fifty-third chapter of the Koran, as having 
seen the angel Gabriel "by the lote-tree, beyond which there is no passing: 
near it is the Garden of Eternal Abode." This tree, say the commentators, 
stands in the seventh Heaven, on the right hand of the Throne «^i Go^ 



176 L A L L A R O O K H. 



"And this," said the Great Chamberlain, "is poetry! 
this flimsy manufacture of the brain, which, in comparison 
with the lofty and durable monuments of genius, is as the 
gold filagree-work of Zamara beside the eternal architecture 
of Eg}'pt!" After this gorgeous sentence, which, with a 
few more of the same kind, Fadladeen kept by him for 
rare and important occasions, he proceeded to the anatomy 
of the short poem just recited. The lax and easy kind of 
metre in which it was WTitten ought to be denounced, he 
said, as one of the leading causes of the alarming growth 
of poetry in our times. If some check were not given to 
this lawless facility, we should soon be overrun by a race 
of bards as numerous and as shallow as the hundred and 
twenty thousand Streams of Basra. ^ They who succeeded 
in this style deserved chastisement for their very success ; — 
as warriors have been punished, even after gaining a victory, 
because they had taken the liberty of gaining it in an 
irregular or unestablished manner. What, then, was to be 
said to those who failed ? to those who presumed, as in the 

a "It is said that the rivers or streams of Basra were reckoned in the time 
of Pelal ben Abi Bordeh, and amounted to the number of one hundred and 
twenty thousand streams." — Ebn Haukal. 



L A L L A R O O K H. 177 

present lamentable instance, to imitate the license and ease 
of the bolder sons of song, without any of that grace or 
vigour which gave a dignity even to negligence; — who, 
like them, flung the jereed^ carelessly, but not, like them, 
to the mark; — "and who," said he, raising his voice to 
excite a proper degree of wakefulness in his hearers, " con- 
trive to appear heavy and constrained in the midst of all 
the latitude they allow themselves, like one of thosd young 
pagans that dance before the Princess, who is ingenious 
enough to move as if her limbs were fettered, in a pair of . 
the lightest and loosest drawers of Masulipatam!" 

It was but little suitable, he continued, to the grave 
march of criticism to follow this fantastical Peri, of whom 
they had just heard, through all her flights and adventures 
between earth and heaven ; but he could not help adverting 
to the puerile conceitedness of the Three Gifts which she is 
supposed to carry to the skies, — a drop of blood, forsooth, 
a sigh, and a tear! How the first of these articles was 
delivered into the Angel's " radiant hand" he professed 
himself at a loss to discover ; and as to the safe carriage of 
the sigh and the tear, such Peris and such poets were beings 
by far too incomprehensible for him even to guess how they 
managed such matters. "But, in short," said he, "it is a 
waste of time and patience to dwell longer upon a thing so 

a The name of the javelin with which the Easterns exercise. — See Castellan, 
Hours des Othomans, torn. iii. p. 161. 



178 LALLA ROOKH. 

incurably frivolous, — puny even among its own puny race, 
and such as only the Banyan Hospital" for Sick Insects 
should undertake." 

In vain did Lalla Rookh try to soften this inexorable 
critic ; in vain did she resort to her most eloquent common- 
places, — reminding him that poets were a timid and sensitive 
race, w^hose sweetness was not to be drawn forth, like that 
of the fragrant grass near the Ganges, by crushing and 
trampling upon them ; " — that severity often extinguished 
every chance of the perfection which it demanded ; and that, 
after all, perfection was like the Mountain of the Talisman, — 
no one had ever yet reached its summit.c Neither these 
gentle axioms, nor the still gentler looks with which they 
were inculcated, could lower for one instant the elevation of 
Fadladeen's eyebrows, or charm him into any thing like 



a "This account excited a desire of visiting the Banyan Hospital, as I had 
heard much of their benevolence to all kinds of animals that were either sick, 
lame, or infirm, through age or accident. On my arrival, there were presented 
to my view many horses, cows, and oxen, in one apartment ; in another, dogs, 
sheep, goats, and monkeys, with clean straw for them to rejiose on. Above 
stairs were depositories for seeds of many sorts, and flat, broad dishes for water, 
for the use of birds and insects." — Parson's Travels. 

It is said that all animals know the Banyans, that the most timid approach 
them, and that bhds will fly nearer to them than to other people. — See Grandjrrd. 

b «A very fragrant grass from the banks of the Ganges, near Heridwar, 
which in some places covers whole acres, and diffuses, when crushed, a strong 
odour." — Sir W. Jones on the Spikenard of the Ancients, 

'^ " Near this is a curious hill, called Koh Talism, the Mountain of the 
Talisman, because, according to the traditions of the country, no person ever 
succeeded in gainmg its summit." — Kinneir. 



L A L L A RO OK H. • ]70 

encouragement, or even toleration, of her poet. Toleration, 
indeed, was not among the weaknesses of Fadladeen ; — ■ 
he carried the same spirit into matters of poetry and of 
religion, and, though little versed in the beauties or sublimities 
of either, was a perfect master of the art of persecution in 
both. His zeal was the same, too, in either pursuit ; whether 
the game before him was pagans or poetasters, — worshippers 
of cows, or writers of epics. 

They had now arrived at the splendid city of Lahore, 
whose mausoleums and shrines, magnificent and numberless, 
where Death appeared to share equal honours with Heaven, 
would have powerfully affected the heart and imagination of 
Lalla RooKH, if feelings more of this earth had not taken 
entire possession of her already. She was here met by 
messengers, despatched from Cashmere, who informed her 
that the King had arrived in the Valley, and was himself 
superintending the sumptuous preparations that were then 
making in the Saloons of the Shalimar for her reception. 
The chill she felt on receiving this intelligence, — which to a 
bride whose heart was free and light would have brought only 
images of affection and pleasure, — convinced her that her 
peace was gone for ever, and that she was in love, irretriev- 
ably in love, with young Feramorz. The veil had fallen off 
in which this passion at first disguises itself, and to know that 
she loved was now as painful as to love without knowing it 
had been delicious. Feramorz, too — what misery Avould be 



180 L A L L A R O K H. 

his, if the sweet hours of intercourse so imprudently allowed 
them should have stolen into his heart the same fatal fascina- 
tion as into hers; — if, notwithstanding her rank, and the 
modest homage he always paid to it, even he should have 
yielded to the influence of those long and happy interviews, 
where music, poetry, the delightful scenes of nature, — all had 
tended to bring their hearts close together, and to waken by 
every means that too ready passion, which often, like "the 
young of the desert-bird, is warmed into life by the eyes 
alone ! ^ She saw but one way to preserve herself from being 
culpable as well as unhappy, and this, however painful, she 
was resolved to adopt. Feramorz must no more be admitted 
to her presence. To have strayed so far into the dangerous 
labyrinth was wrong, but to linger in it, while the clew was 
yet in her hand, would be criminal. Though the heart she 
had to offer to the King of Bucharia might be cold and 
broken, it should at least be pure ; and she must only 
endeavour to forget the short dream of happiness she had 
enjoyed, — like that Arabian shepherd, who, in wandermg 
into the wilderness, caught a glimpse of the Gardens of Irim, 
and then lost them again for ever!" 

The arrival of the young Bride at Lahore was celebrated 
in the most enthusiastic manner. The Rajas and Omras in 



« The Arabians believe that the ostriches hatch their young by only look- 
ing at them." — P. Vanslebe, Relat. d'Egypte. 
^ See Sale's Koran, note, vol. ii. p. 484. 



L A L L A R O O K H. IQl 

her train, who had kept at a certain distance during the 
journey, and never encamped nearer to the Princess than 
was strictly necessary for her safeguard, here rode in splendid 
cavalcade through the city, and distributed the most costly 
presents to the crowd. Engines were erected in all the 
squares, which cast forth showers of confectionary among 
the people: while the artisans, in chariots,"" adorned with 
tinsel and flying streamers, exhibited the badges of their 
respective trades through the streets. Such brilliant displays 
of life and pageantry among the palaces, and domes, and 
gilded minarets of Lahore, made the city altogether like a 
place of enchantment ; — particularly on the day when Lalla 
RooKH set out again upon her journey, when she was 
accompanied to the gate by all the fairest and richest of 
the nobility, and rode along between ranks of beautiful 
boys and girls, who kept waving over their heads plates of 
gold and silver flowers," and then threw them around to be 
gathered by the populace. 

For many days after their departure from Lahore, a 
considerable degree of gloom hung over the whole party. 
Lalla Rookh, who had intended to make illness her 
excuse for not admitting the young minstrel, as usual, to 

a Oriental Tales. 

iJ Ferishta. " Or rather," says Scott, upon the passage of Ferishta from 
which this is taken, « small coins, stamped with the figure of a flower. They 
are still used in India to distribute in charity, and, on occasion, thrown by the 
purse-bearers of the great among the populace." 



183 LALLAROOKH. 

the pavilion, soon found that to feign indisposition was 
unnecessary; — Fadladeen felt the loss of the good road 
they had hitherto travelled, and was very near cursing 
Jehan-Guire (of blessed memory!) for not having continued 
his delectable alley of trees,^ at least as far as the moun- 
tains of Cashmere ; — while the Ladies, who had nothing now 
to do all day but to be fanned by peacocks' feathers and 
listen to Fadladeen, seemed heartily weary of the life they 
led, and, in spite of all the Great Chamberlain's criticisms, 
were so tasteless as to wish for the poet again. One 
evening, as they were proceeding to their place of rest for 
the night, the Princess, who, for the freer enjoyment of the 
air, had mounted her favourite Arabian palfrey, in passing 
by a small grove, heard the notes of a lute from within its 
leaves, and a voice, which she but too well knew, singing 
the following words: — 



Tell me not of joys above. 
If that world can give no bliss. 

Truer, happier than the Love 
Which enslaves our souls in this. 



a The fine road made by the Emperor Jehan-Guire from Agra to Lahore, 
planted with trees on each side. The road is two hundred and fifty leagues 
in length. It has « little pyramids or turrets," says Birnier, « erected every 
half league, to mark the ways, and firequent wells to afibrd drink to passengers, 
and to water the young trees." 



L A L L A R O O K H. 183 

Tell me not of Houris' eyes ;— 

Far from me their dangerous glow, 
If those looks that light the skies 

Wound like some that burn below. 

Who, that feels what Love is here, 

All its falsehood — all its pain — 
Would, for ev'n Elysium's sphere. 

Risk the fatal dream again ? 

Who, that midst a desert's heat 

Sees the waters fade away, 
Would not rather die than meet 

Streams again as false as they ? 



The tone of melancholy defiance in which these words 
were uttered, went to Lalla Rookh's heart; — and, as she 
reluctantly rode on, she could not help feeling it to be a 
sad but still sweet certainty, that Feramorz was to the full 
as enamoured and miserable as herself. 

The place where they encamped that evening was the first 
delightful, spot they had come to since they left Lahore. On 
one side of them was a grove full of small Hindoo temples, 
and planted with the most graceful trees of the East ; where 
the tamarind, the cassia, and the silken plantains of Ceylon 



184 LALLA ROOKH. 

were mingled in rich contrast with the high fan-like foliage 
of the Palmyra, — that favourite tree of the luxurious bird that 
lights up the chambers of its nest with fire-flies." In the 
middle of the lawn where the pavilion stood there was a tank 
surrounded by small mangoe-trees, on the clear cold waters 
of which floated multitudes of the beautiful red lotus ; '' while 
at a distance stood the ruins of a strange and awful-looking 
tower, which seemed old enough to have been the temple of 
some religion no longer known, and which spoke the voice 
of desolation in the midst of all that bloom and loveliness. 
This singular ruin excited the wonder and conjectures of all. 
Lalla Rookh guessed in vain, and the all-pretending Fad- 
LADEEN, who had never till this journey been beyond the 
precincts of Delhi, was proceeding most learnedly to show 
that he knew nothing whatever about the matter, when one 
of the Ladies suggested that perhaps Feramorz could satisfy 
their curiosity. They were now approaching his native 
mountains, and this tower might perhaps be a relic of some 
of those dark superstitions, which had prevailed in that 
country before the light of Islam dawned upon it. The 
Chamberlain, who usually preferred his own ignorance to the 
best knowledge that any one else could give him, was by no 



The Baya, or Indian Gross-beak. — Sir W. Jones. 
i> « Here is a large pagoda by a tank, on the water of which float multitudes 
of the beautiful red lotus : the flower is larger than that of the white water-lily 
and is the most lovely of the nymphsas I have seen." — Mrs. Graham's Journal 
of a Residence in India. 



L A L L A R O O K H. 185 

means pleased with this officious reference ; and the Princess, 
too, was about to interpose a faint word of objection; but 
before either of them could speak, a slave was despatched 
for Feramorz, who, in a very few minutes, made his appear- 
ance before them — looking so pale and unhappy in Lalla 
Rookh's eyes, that she repented already of her cruelty in 
having so long excluded him. 



That venerable tower, he told them, was the remains of 
an ancient Fire Temple, built by those Ghebers or Persians 
of the old religion, who, many hundred years since, had fled 
hither from their Arab conquerors,* preferring liberty and 
their altai's in a foreign land to the alternative of apostasy or 
persecution in their own. It w^as impossible, he added, not 
to feel interested in the many glorious but unsuccessful 
struggles, which had been made by these original natives 
of Persia to cast off the yoke of their bigoted conquerors. 
Like their own Fire in the Burning Field at Bakou,'' when 
suppressed in one place, they had but broken out with fresh 
flame in another; and as a native of Cashmere, of that fair 
and Holy Valley, which had in the same manner become the 



a « On les voit persecutes par les Khalifes se retirer dans les montagnes du 
Kerman: plusieurs choisirent pour retraite la Tartaric et la Chine; d'autres 
s'arreterent sur les bords du Gauge, a Test de Delhi." — 31. Jnquetil, Memoires 
de I'Academie, torn. xxxi. p. 346. 

^ The « Ager ardens" described by Kempfer, Amanitat. Exot. 
q2 



186 LALLA ROOKH. 



prey of strangers,^ and seen her ancient shrines and native 
princes swept away before the march of her intolerant 
invaders, he felt a sympathy, he owned, with the sufferings 
of the persecuted Ghebers, which every monument like this 
before them but tended more powerfully to awaken. 

It was the first time that Feramorz had ever ventured 
upon so much prose before Fadladeen, and it may easily be 
conceived what effect such prose as this must have produced 
upon that most orthodox and most pagan-hating personage. 
He sat for some minutes aghast, ejaculating only at intervals, 
"Bigoted conquerors! — sympathy with Fire-worshippers!"" 
— while Feramorz, happy to take advantage of this almost 
speechless horror of the Chamberlain, proceeded to say that 
he knew a melancholy story, connected with the events of 
one of those struggles of the brave Fire-worshippers against 
their Arab masters, which, if the evening was not too far 
advanced, he should have much pleasure in being allowed to 
relate to the Princess. It was impossible for Lalla Rookh 
to refuse : — he had never before looked half so animated ; 



a « Cashmere (say its historians) had its own princes four thousand years 
before its conquest by Akbar in 1585. Akbar would have found some difficulty 
to reduce this paradise of the Indies, situated as it is within such a fortress of 
mountains, but its monarch, Yusef-Khan, was basely betrayed by his Omrahs." 
— Pennant. 

t" Voltaire tells us that, in his Tragedy "Les Guebres," he was generally 
supposed to have alluded to the Jansenists. I should not be surprised if this 
story of the Fire-worshippers were found capable of a similar doublencss of 
application. 



LALLA ROOKH 187 

and when he spoke of the Holy Valley, his eyes had sparkled, 
she thought, like the talismanic characters on the scimitar 
of Solomon. Her consent was therefore most readily 
granted; and while Fadladeen sat in unspeakable dismay, 
expecting treason and abomination in every line, the poet 
thus began his story of the Fire- worshippers : — 



THE EIUE-WOUSHIPPEKS. 



'Tis moonlight over Oman's Sea ; ^ 

Her banks of pearl and palmy isles 
Bask in the night-beam beauteously, 

And her blue waters sleep in smiles. 
'Tis moonlight in Harmozia's^ walls, 
And through her Emir's porphyry halls, 
Where some hours since, was heard the swell 
Of trumpet and the clash of zel,*^ 
Bidding the bright-eyed sun farewell ; — 
The peaceful sun, whom better suits 

The music of the bulbul's nest. 
Or the light touch of lovers' lutes, 

To sing him to his golden rest. 



a The Persian Gulf, sometimes so called, which separates the shores of Persia 
and Arabia. 

•> The present Gombaroon, a town on the Persian side of the Gulf, 
c A Moorish instrument of music. 
183 



THE FIRE -WORSHIPPERS. 189 

All hushed — there's not a breeze in motion ; 

The shore is silent as the ocean. 

If zephyrs come, so light they come, 

Nor leaf is stirred nor wave is driven ; — 
The wind-tower on the Emir's dome ^ 

Can hardly win a breath from heaven. 

Ev'n he, that tyrant Arab, sleeps 

Calm, while a nation round him weeps ; 

While curses load the air he breathes. 

And falchions from unnumbered sheaths 

Are starting" to avenge the shame 

His race hath brought on Iran's ^ name. 

Hard, heartless Chief, unmoved alike 

'Mid eyes that weep, and swords that strike ; 

One of that saintly, murderous brood. 

To carnage and the Koran given. 
Who think through unbelievers' blood 
Lies their directest path to heaven ; — 
One, who will pause and kneel unshod 

In the warm blood his hand hath poured. 
To mutter o'er some text of God 

Engraven on his reeking sword f — 

*■ " At Gomharoon and other places in Persia, they have towers for the pur- 
pose of catching the wind, and cooling the houses." — Le Brnyn. 

* « Iran is the true general name for the empire of Persia." — Asiat. Res. Disc. 5. 

c "On the blades of their scimitars some verse from the Koran is usually 
inscribed." — Russel. 



190 LALLA ROOKH. 

Nay, who can coolly note the line, 
The letter of tliose words divine. 
To which his blade, with searching art, 
Had sunk into its victim's heart ! 

Just All A ! what must be thy look. 

When such a wretch before thee stands 
Unblushing, with thy Sacred Book,— 

Turning the leaves Avith blood-stained hands, 
And wresting from its page sublime 
His creed of lust, and hate, and crime ; — 
Ev'n as those bees of Trebizond, 

Which, from the sunniest flowers that glad 
With their pure smile the gardens round. 

Draw venom forth that drives men mad." 

Never did fierce Arabia send 

A satrap forth more direly great ; 
Never was Iran doomed to bend 

Beneath a yoke of deadlier weight. 
Her throne had fallen — her pride was crushed — • 
Her sons were willing slaves, nor blushed 
In their own land, — no more their own, — 
To crouch beneath a stranger's throne. 



a "There is a kind of Rhododendros about Trebizond, whose flowers the 
Dee feeds upon, and the honey thence drives people mad." — Tournefort. 



THE FIRE-WOKSHIPPERS. ]91 

Her towers, where Mithra once had burned, 
To Moslem shrines — shame ! — were turned. 
Where slaves, converted by the sword, 
Their mean, apostate worship poured. 
And cursed the faith their sires adored. 
Yet has she hearts, mid all this ill, 
O'er all this wreck high buoyant still 
With hope and vengeance ; — hearts that yet — 

Like gems, in darkness, issuing rays 
They've treasured from the sun that's set — 

Beam all the light of long-lost days ! 
And swords she hath, nor weak nor slow 

To second all such hearts can dare ; 
As he shall know, well, dearly know 

Wiio sleeps in moonlight luxury there, 
Tranquil as if his spirit lay 
Becalmed m Heaven's approving ray. 
Sleep on — for purer eyes than thine 
Those waves are hushed, those planets shine , 
Sleep on, and be thy rest unmoved 

By the white moonbeam's dazzling power ; — 
None but the loving and the loved 

Should be awake at this sweet hour. 

And see — where, high above those rocks 
That o'er the deep their shadows fling, 
Yon turret ^ands ; — where ebon locks, 



192 L A L L A R K H. 

As glossy as a heron's wing 

Upon the turban of a king,* 
Hang from the lattice, long and wild, — 
'Tis she, that Emir's blooming child, 
All truth and tenderness and grace. 
Though born of such ungentle race ; — 
An image of Youth's radiant Fountain 
Springing in a desolate mountain ! ^ 
0, what a pure and sacred thing 

Is Beauty, curtained from the sight 
Of the gross world, illumining 

One only mansion with her light ! 
Unseen by man's disturbing eye, — 

The flower that blooms beneath the sea, 
Too deep for sunbeams, doth not lie 

Hid in more chaste obscurity. 
So, HiNDA, have thy face and mind. 
Like holy mysteries, lain enshrined. 
And, 0, what transport for a lover 

To lift the veil that shades them o'er ! — 
Like those who, all at once, discover 

In the lone deep some fairy shore. 

Where mortal never trod before. 



a "Their kings wear plumes of black herons' feathers upon the tight side, 
as a badge of sovereignty." — Hanway. 

b « The Fountain of Youth, by a Mahometan tradition, is situated in some 
dark region of the East." — liichardson. 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 193 

And sleep and wake in scented airs 
No lip had ever breathed but theirs. 

Beautiful are the maids that glide, 

On summer-eves, through Yemen's'' dales. 
And bright the glancing looks they hide 

Behind their litters' roseate veils ; — 
And brides, as delicate and fair 
As the white jasmine flowers they wear. 
Hath Yemen in her blissful clime. 

Who, lulled in cool kiosk or bower,'' 
Before their mirrors count the time,*^ 

And grow still lovelier every hour. 



a Arabia Felix. 

^ " In the midst of the garden is the chiosk, that is, a large room, commonly 
beautified with a fine fountain in the midst of it. It is raised nine or ten steps, 
and enclosed with gilded lattices, round which vines, jessamines, and honey- 
suckles, make a sort of green wall ; large trees are planted round this place, 
which is the scene of their greatest pleasures." — Lady M. W. Montagu. 

<^ The women of the East are never without their looking-glasses. « In 
Barbary," says Shaw, " they are so fond of their looking-glasses, which they 
hang upon their breasts, that they will not lay them aside, even when, after 
the drudgery of the day, they are obliged to go two or three miles with a pitcher 
or a goat's skin to fetch water." — Travels. 

In other parts of Asia they wear little looking-glasses on their thumbs. 
« Hence (and from the lotus being considered the emblem of beauty) is the 
meaning of the following mute intercourse of two lovers before their parents: — 
« 'He, with salute of deference due, 
< A lotus to his forehead pressed ; 

She raised her mirror to his view. 

Then turned it inward to her breast.' " 

Asiatic Miscellany, vol. ii. 
R 



194 LALLA ROOKH. 

But never yet hath bride or maid 

In Araby's gay Haram smiled, 
Whose boasted brightness would not fade 

Before Al Hassan's blooming child. 

Light as the angel shapes that bless 
An infant's dream, yet not the less 
Rich in all woman's loveliness ; — 
With eyes so pure, that from their ray 
Dark Vice would turn abashed away, 
Blinded like serpents, when they gaze 
Upon the emerald's virgin blaze "; '^ — 
Yet filled with all youth's sweet desires. 
Mingling the meek and vestal fires 
Of other worlds with all the bliss, 
The fond, weak tenderness of this ; 
A soul, too, more than half divine. 

Where, through some shades of earthly feeling, 
Religion's softened glories shine, 

Like light through summer foliage stealing, 
Shedding a glow of such mild hue, 
So warm, and yet so shadowy too. 
As makes the very darkness there 
More beautiful than light elsewhere. 



a « They say that if a snake or serpent fix his eyes on the lustre of those 
stones, (emeralds,) he immediately becomes blind." — Ahmed hen Abdalaziz, 
Treatise on Jewels. 



THE F I R E - W B S H I P P E R S. 195 

Such is the maid who, at this hour, 

Hath risen from her restless sleep, 
And sits alone in that high bower, 

Watching the still and shining deep. 
Ah ! 'twas not thus, — with tearful eyes 

And beating heart, — she used to gaze 
On the magnificent earth and skies. 

In her own land, in happier days. 
Why looks she now so anxious down 
Among those rocks, whose rugged frown 

Blackens the mirror of the deep ? 
Whom waits she all this lonely night ? 

Too rough the rocks, too bold the steep, 
For man to scale that turret's height ! — 

So deemed at least her thoughtful sire. 

When high, to catch the cool night-air, 
After the daybeam's withering fire,* 

He built her bower of freshness there. 
And had it decked with costliest skill, 

And fondly thought it safe as fair : — 
Think, reverend dreamer ! think so still. 

Nor wake to learn what Love can dare ; — 
Love, all- defying Love, who sees 
No charm in trophies w^on with ease ; — 

«i«At Gombaroon and the Isle of Ormus it is sometimes so hot, that the 
people are obliged to he all day in the water." — Marco Polo. 



196 L A L L A R O K H. 

Whose rarest, dearest fruits of bliss 
Are plucked on danger's precipice ! 
Bolder than they, who dare not dive 

For pearls, but when the sea's at rest, 
Love, in the tempest most alive, 

Hath ever held that pearl the best 
He finds beneath the stormiest water. 
Yes — Araby's unrivalled daughter. 
Though high that tower, that rock-way rude, 

There's one who, but to kiss thy cheek. 
Would climb th' untrodden solitude 

Of Ararat's tremendous peak,* 
And think its steeps, though dark and dread. 
Heaven's pathways, if to thee they led ! 
Ev'n now thou seest the flashing spray, 
That lights his oar's impatient way ; — 
Ev'n now thou hear'st the sudden shock 
Of his swift bark against the rock, 



a « This mountain is generally supposed to be inaccessible. Struy says. 
« I can well assure the reader that their opinion is not true, who suppose this 
mount to be inaccessible." He adds, that « the lower part of the mountain is 
cloudy, misty, and dark, the middlemost part very cold, and like clouds of snow, 
but the upper regions perfectly calm." — It was on this mountain that the ark 
was supposed to have rested after the Deluge, and part of it, they say, exists 
there still, which Struy thus gravely accounts for: — "Whereas none can 
remember that the air on the top of the hill did ever change or was subject either 
to wind or rain, which is presumed to be the reason that the Ark has endured 
so long without being rotten." — See Carrerfs Travels, where the Doctor laughs 
at this whole account of Mount Ararat. 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPEKS. 197 

And stretchest down thy arms of snow, 

As if to lift him from below ! 

Like her to whom, at dead of night. 

The bridegroom, with his locks of light,'' 

Came, in the flush of love and pride, 

And scaled the terrace of his bride ; — 

When, as she saw him rashly spring, 

And midway up in danger cling. 

She flung him down her long black hair. 

Exclaiming, breathless, "There, love, there!" 

And scarce did manlier nerve uphold 

The hero Zal in that fond hour, 
Than wings the youth who, fleet and bold. 

Now climbs the rocks to Hinda's bower. 
See — light as up their granite steeps 

The rock-goats of Arabia clamber," 
Fearless from crag to crag he leaps, 

And now is in the maiden's chamber. 

She loves — but knows not whom she loves. 
Nor what his race, nor whence he came ; — 



1 1n one of the books of the Shah Nameh, when Zal (a celebrated hero 
of Persia, remarkable for his white hair) comes to the terrace of his mistress 
Rodahver at night, she lets down her long tresses to assist him in his ascent; — 
he, however, manages it in a less romantic way by fixing his crook in a projecting 
beam." — See ChampioH's Ferdosi. 

^ '< On the lofty hills of Arabia Petraea are rock-goats." — Niebuhr, 



198 LALLA ROOKH. 

Like one who meets, in Indian groves, 

Some beauteous bird without a name, 
Brought by the last ambrosial breeze. 
From isles in th' undiscovered seas. 
To show his plumage for a day 
To wondering eyes, and wing away ! 
Will he thus fly — her nameless lover ? 

Alla forbid ! 'twas by a moon 
As fair as this, while singing over 

Some ditty to her soft Kanoon,* 
Alone, at this same witching hour, 

She first beheld his radiant eyes 
Gleam through the lattice of the bower. 

Where nightly now they mix their sighs ; 
And thought some spirit of the air 
(For what could waft a mortal there ?) 
Was pausing on his moonlight way 
To listen to her lonely lay ! 
This fancy ne'er hath left her mind : 

And — though, when terror's swoon had past, 
She saw a youth, of mortal kind. 

Before her in obeisance cast, — 
Yet often since, when he hath spoken 
Strange, awful words, — and gleams have broken 

« « Canun, espece de psalterion, avec cles cordes de boyaux ; les dames en 
touchent dans le serrail, avec des decailles armies de pointes de cooc." — 
Toderini, translated by De Cournand. 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 199 



From his dark eyes, too bright to bear, 

! she hath feared her soul was given 
To some unhallowed child of air. 

Some erring Spirit cast from heaven, 
Like those angelic youths of old. 
Who burned for maids of mortal mould. 
Bewildered left the glorious skies, 
And lost their heaven for woman's eyes. 
Fond girl ! nor fiend nor angel he 
Who wooes thy young simplicity ; 
But one of earth's impassioned sons, 

As warm in love, as fierce in ire 
As the best heart whose current runs 

Full of the Day-God's living fire. 



But quenched to-night that ardour seems, 

And pale his cheek, and sunk his brow ; — 
Never before, but in her dreams. 

Had she beheld him pale as now : 
And those were dreams of troubled sleep, 
From which 'twas joy to wake and weep ; 
Visions, that will not be forgot. 

But sadden every waking scene. 
Like warning ghosts, that leave the spot 

All. withered where they once have been. 



200 L A L L A R O K H. 



"How sweetly," said the trembling maid, 
Of her own gentle voice afraid, 
So long had they in silence stood. 
Looking upon that tranquil flood — 
"How sweetly does the moonbeam smile 
" To-night upon yon leafy isle ! 
" Oft, in my fancy's wanderings, 
« I've wished that little isle had wings, 
"And we, within its fairy bowers, 

" Were wafted off to seas unknown, 
" Where not a pulse should beat but ours, 

" And we might live, love, die alone ! 
" Far from the cruel and the cold, — 

"Where the bright eyes of angels only 
" Should come around us, to behold 

" A paradise so pure and lonely. 
"Would this be world enough for thee ?" — 
Playful she turned, that he might see 

The passing smile her cheek put on ; 
But when she marked how mournfully 

His eyes met hers, that smile was gone ; 
And, bursting into heartfelt tears, 
"Yes, yes," she cried, " my hourly fears, 
"My dreams have boded all too right — 
" We part — for ever part — to-night ! 
" I knew, I knew it could not last — 
" 'Twas bright, 'twas heavenly, but 'tis past ! 



V 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS, , 201 

" ! ever thus, from childhood's hour, 

" I've seen my fondest hopes decay ; 
" I never loved a tree or flower, 

"But 'twas the first to fade away. 
"I never nursed a dear gazelle, 

" To glad me with its soft black eye, 
" But when it came to know me well, 

"And love me, it was sure to die ! 
"Now too — the joy most like divine 

" Of all I ever dreamt or knew, 
"To see thee, hear thee, call thee mine, — 

" misery ! must I lose that too ! 
" Yet go — on peril's brink we meet ; 

" Those frightful rocks — that treacherous sea — 
" No, never come again — though sweet, 

" Though heaven, it may be death to thee. 
"Farewell — and blessings on thy way, 

" Where'er thou go'st, beloved stranger ! 
" Better to sit and watch that ray, 
"And think thee safe, though far away, 

"Than have thee near me, and in danger!''' 



" Danger! — 0, tempt me not to boast — " 
The youth exclaimed — " thou little know'st 
" What he can brave, who, born and nursed 
" In Danger's paths, has dared her worst; 



202 LALLA ROOKH. 

<' Upon whose ear the signal- word 

" Of strife and death is hourly breaking; 
, " Who sleeps with head upon the sword 
" His fevered hand must grasp in waking. 
"Danger!" 

" Say on — thou fear'st not then, 
"And we may meet — oft meet again!" 

" ! look not so — beneath the skies, 
" I now fear nothing but those eyes. 
" If aught on earth could charm or force 
" My spirit from its destined course, — 
" If aught could make this soul forget 
" The bond to which its seal is set, 
" 'Twould be those eyes ; — they, only they, 
" Could melt that sacred seal away! 
"But no — 'tis fixed — my awful doom 
"Is fixed — on this side of the tomb 
"We meet no more; — why, w'hy did Heaven 
"Mingle two souls that earth has riven, 
" Has rent asunder wide as ours? 
i " 0, Arab maid, as soon the Powers 

■ " Of Light and Darkness may combine, 

" As I be linked with thee or thine ! 

" Thy Father " 

"Holy Alla, save 
" His gray head from that lightning glance ! 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 203 

" Thou know'st him not — he loves the brave ; 

« Nor hves there under heaven's expanse 
" One who would prize, would worship thee 
"And thy bold spirit more than he. 
" Oft when, in childhood, I have played 

" With the bright falchion by his side, 
"I've heard him swear his lisping maid 

"In time should be a warrior's bride. 
" And still, whene'er at Haram hours, 
" I take him cool sherbets and flowers, 
" He tells me, when in playful mood, 

" A hero shall my bridegroom be, 
" Since maids are best in battle wooed, 

" And won with shouts of victory ! 
"Nay, turn not from me — thou alone 
" Art formed to make both hearts thy own. 
" Go — join his sacred ranks — thou know'st 

" Th' unholy strife these Persians wage : — 
" Good Heaven, that frown ! — even now thou glow'st 

" With more than mortal warrior's rage. 
" Haste to the camp by morning's light, 
"And, when that sword is raised in fight, 
" 0, still remember. Love and I 
" Beneath its shadow trembling lie ! 
" One victory o'er those Slaves of Fire, 
" Those impious Ghebers, whom my sire ^ 

" Abhors " 



204 LALLA ROOKH. 



"Hold, hold — thy words are death — " 

The stranger cried, as wild he flung 
His mantle back, and showed beneath 

The Gheber belt that round him clung." — 
" Here, maiden, look — weep — blush to see 
" All that thy sire abhors in me ! 
" Yes — / am of that impious race, 

" Those Slaves of Fire, who, morn and even, 
" Hail their Creator's dwelling-place 

« Among the living lights of heaven : ^ 
" Yes — / am of that outcast few, 
" To Iran and to vengeance true, 

a « They (the Ghebers) lay so much stress on their cushee or girdle, as not 
to dare to be an mstant without it." — Grose's Voyage. — " Le jeune homme nia 
d'abord la chose ; mais, ayant ete depouille de sa robe, et la large ceinture qu'il 

portoit comme Ghebr," &c. &c D'Hcrhdot, art. Agduani. " Pour se distinguer 

des Idolatres de I'lnde, les Guebres se ceignent tous d'un cordon de laine, ou de 
poil de chameau." — Encyclopedie Frangoise. 

D'Herbelot says this belt was generally of leather. 

^ « They suppose the Throne of the Almighty is seated in the sun, and hence 
their worship of that luminary." — Hanvjay. " As to fire, the Ghebers place 
the spring-head of it in that globe of fire, the Sun, by them called Mythras, or 
Mihir, to which they pay the highest reverence, in gratitude for the manifold 
benefits flowing from its ministerial omniscience. But they are so far from 
confounding the subordination of the Servant with the majesty of its Creator, 
that they not only attribute no sort of sense or reasoning to the sun or fire, in 
any of its operations, but consider it as a purely passive, blind instrument, 
directed and governed by the immediate impression on it of the will of God ; 
but they do not even give that luminary, all-glorious as it is, more than the 
second rank amongst his works, reserving the first for that stupendous production 
of divine power, the mind of man." — Grose, The false charges brought against 
the religion of these people by their Mussulman tyrants is but one proof among 
many of the truth of this writer's remark, that "calumny is often added to 
oppression, if but for the sake of justifying it." 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 205 



" Who curse the hour your Arabs came 
" To desolate our shrines of flame, 
"And swear, before God's burning eye, 
" To break our country's chains, or die ! 
" Thy bigot sire, — nay, tremble not, — 

"He, who gave birth to those dear eyes, 
" With me is sacred as the spot 

"From which our fires of worship rise! 
" But know — 'twas he I sought that night, 

" When, from my watch-boat on the sea, 
" I caught this turret's glimmering light, 

"And up the rude rocks desperately 
" Rushed to my prey — thou know'st the rest — 
"I climbed the gory vulture's nest, 
"And found a trembling dove within; — 
" Thine, thine the victory — thine the sin — 
" If Love hath made one thought his own, 
" That Vengeance claims first — last — alone ! 
" ! had we never, never met, 
" Or could this heart ev'n now forget 
"How linked, how blessed we might have been, 
" Had fate not frowned so dark between ! 
" Hadst thou been born a Persian maid, 

"In neighbouring valleys had we dwelt, 
« Through the same fields in childhood played, 

" At the same kindling altar knelt, 



206 LALLA ROOKH. 

" Then, then, while all those nameless ties, 
" In which the charm of Country lies, 
" Had round our hearts been hourly spun, 
" Till Iran's cause and thine were one ; 
" While in thy lute's awakening sigh 
" I heard the voice of days gone by, 
" And saw, in every smile of thine, 
" Returning hours of glory shine ; — 
" While the wronged Spirit of our Land 

" Lived, looked, and spoke her wrongs through 
thee, — 
" God ! who could then this sword withstand ? 

"Its very flash were victory ! 
"But now, — estranged, divorced for ever, 
" Far as the grasp of Fate can sever ; 
" Our only ties what Love has wove, — 

" In faith, friends, country, sundered wide ; 
" And then, then only, true to love, 

"When false to all that's dear beside! 
" Thy father Iran's deadliest foe — 
" Thyself, perhaps, ev'n now — but no — 
"Hate never looked so lovely yet! 

"No — sacred to thy soul will be 
" The land of him who could forget 

" All but that bleeding land for thee. 
" When other eyes shall see, unmoved, 

" Her widows mourn, her warriors fall, 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 207 

" Thou'lt think how well one Gheber loved, 
"And for his sake thou'lt weep for all ! 

"But look " 

With sudden start he turned. 

And pointed to the distant wave, 

Where lights, like charnel meteors, burned 
« 

Bluely, as o'er some seaman's grave ; 

And fiery darts, at intervals," 

Flew up all sparkling from the main, 
As if each star that nightly falls, 

Were shooting back to heaven again. 

" My signal lights ! — I must away — 

" Both, both are ruined if I stay. 

" Farewell — sweet life ! thou cling'st in vain — 

"Now, Vengeance, I am thine again!" 

Fiercely he broke away, nor stopped, 

Nor looked — but from the lattice dropped 

Down mid the pointed crags beneath, 

As if he fled from love to death. 

While pale and mute young Hinda stood, 

Nor moved, till in the silent flood 

A momentary plunge below 

Startled her from her trance of woe ; — 



a « The Mameluks that were in the other boat, when it was dark, used 
to shoot up a sort of fiery arrows into the air, which in some measure resembled 
lightning or falling stars." — Baumgarten. 



208 LALLA ROOKH. 

Shrieking she to the lattice flew, 

" I come — I come — if in that tide 
« Thou sleep'st to-night, I'll sleep there too, 

"In death's cold wedlock, by thy side. 
" ! I would ask no happier bed 

"Than the chill wave my love lies under; 
" Sweeter to rest together dead, 

"Far sweeter, than to live asunder!" 
But no — their hour is not yet come — 

Again she sees his pinnace fly. 
Wafting him fleetly to his home. 

Where'er that ill-starred home may lie ; 
And calm and smooth it seemed to win 

Its moonlight way before the wind, 
As if it bore all peace within. 

Nor left one breaking heart behind ? 



LALLA ROOKH, 209 



The Princess, whose heart was sad enough already, 
could have wished that Feramorz had chosen a less melan- 
choly story; as it is only to the happy that tears are a 
luxury. Her Ladies, however, were by no means sorry 
that love was once more the Poet's theme; for, whenever 
he spoke of love, they said, his voice was as sweet as if he 
had chewed the leaves of that enchanted tree, which grows 
over the tomb of the musician, Tan-Sein.* 

Their road all the morning had lain through a very 
dreary country ; — through valleys, covered with a low bushy 
jungle, where, in more than one place, the awful signal of 
the bamboo stafF,^ with the white flag at its top, reminded 



a « Within the enclosure which surrounds this monument (at Gualior) is a 
small tomb to the memory of Tan-Sein, a musician of incomparable skill, who 
flourished at the court of Akbar. The tomb is overshadowed by a tree, con- 
cerning which a superstitious notion prevails, that the chewing of its leaves will 
give an extraordinary melody to the voice." — Narrative of a Journey from ^gra 
to Ouzein, by W. Hunter, Esq. 

^ « It is usual to place a small white triangular flag, fixed to a bamboo staff 
of ten or twelve feet long, at the place where a tiger has destroyed a man. It 
is common for the passengers also to throw each a stone or brick near the spot, 
so that in the course of a little time a pile equal to a good wagon-load is col- 
lected. The sight of these flags and piles of stones imparts a certain melan- 
choly, not perhaps, altogether void of apprehension." — Oriental Field Sporls, 
vol. ii. 

32 



210 LALLA ROOKH. 

the traveller, that in that very spot the tiger had made some 
human creature his victim. It was, therefore, with much 
pleasure that they arrived at sunset in a safe and lovely 
glen, and encamped under one of those holy trees, whose 
smooth columns and spreading roofs seem to destine them 
for natural temples of religion. Beneath this spacious shade, 
some pious hands had erected a row of pillars ornamented 
with the most beautiful porcelain,^ which now supplied the 
use of mirrors to the young maidens, as they adjusted their 
hair in descending from the palankeens. Here, while, as 
usual, the Princess sat listening anxiously, with Fadladeen 
in one of his loftiest moods of criticism by her side, the young 
Poet, leaning against a branch of the tree, thus continued his 
story : — 



* "The Ficus Indica is called the Pagod-Tree and Tree of Councils; the 
first, from the idols placed under its shade ; the second, because meetings were 
held under its cool branches. In some places it is believed to be the haunt of 
spectres, as the ancient spreading oaks of Wales have been of fairies ; in others 
are erected beneath the shade pillars of stone or posts, elegantly carved, and 
ornamented with the most beautiful porcelain to supply the use of mirrors."— 
Pennant, 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 211 



The morn hath risen clear and calm, 

And o'er the Green Sea^ palely shines, 
Revealing Bahrein's" groves of palm, 
And lighting Kishma's" amber vines. 
Fresh smell the shores of Araby, 
While breezes from the Indian Sea 
Blow round Selama's '^ sainted cape, 

Ancrcurl the shining flood beneath, — 
Whose waves are rich with many a grape. 

And cocoa-nut and flowery wreath. 
Which pious seamen, as they passed. 
Had toward that holy headland cast — 
Oblations to the Genii there 
For gentle skies and breezes fair ! 
The nightingale now bends her flight ^ 
From the high trees, where all the night 



^ The Persian Gulf. — "To dive for pearls in the Green Sea, or Persian 
Gulf."— Sir W. Jones. 

b Islands in the Gulf, 

c Or Selemeh, the genuine name of the headland at the entrance of the 
Gulf, commonly called Cape Musseldom. "The Indians, when they pass the 
promontory, throw cocoa-nuts, fruits, or flowers into the sea, to secure a propi- 
tious voyage." — Morier, 

^ " The nightingale sings from the pomegranate-groves in the day-time, and 
from the loftiest trees at night." — Russii's Aleppo. 



213 LALLA ROOKH. 

She sung so sweet with none to listen ; 
And hides her from the morning star 

Where thickets of pomegranate glisten 
In the clear dawn, — bespangled o'er 

With dew, whose night-drops would not stain 
The best and brightest scimitar* 
That ever youtliful Sultan wore 

On the first morning of his reign. 

And see — the Sun himself ! — on wings 

Of glory up the East he springs. 

Angel of Light ! who, from the time ^ 

Those heavens began their march sublime, 

Hath first of all the starry choir 

Trod in his Maker's steps of fire ! 

Where are the days, thou wondrous sphere, 
When Iran, like a sunflower, turned 
To meet that eye where'er it burned ? 

When from the banks of Bendemeer 
To the nut-groves of Samarcand, 
Thy temples flamed o'er all the land ? 
Where are they? ask. the shades of them 

Who, on Cadessia's^ bloody plains, 

a In speaking of the climate of Shiraz, Francklin says, « The dew is of such 
a pure nature, that if the brightest scimitar should be exposed to it all night, it 
would not receive the least rust." 

" The place where the Persians were finally defeated by the Arabs, and their 
ancient monarchy destroyed. 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 213 

Saw fierce invaders pluck the gem 
From Iran's broken diadem, 

And bind her ancient faith in chains : — 
Ask the poor exile, cast alone 
On foreign shores, unloved, unknown, 
Beyond the Caspian's Iron Gates,^ 

Or on the snowy Mossian mountains. 
Far from his beauteous land of dates, 

Her jasmine bowers and sunny fountains : 
Yet happier so than if he trod 
His own beloved, but blighted, sod, 
Benfc-th a despot stranger's nod ! — 
O, he would rather houseless roam 

Where Freedom and his God may lead. 
Than be the sleekest slave at home 

That crouches to the conqueror's creed ! 

Is Iran's pride then gone for ever. 

Quenched with the flame in Mithra's caves ? — 

No — she has sons, that never — never — 
Will stoop to be the Moslem's slaves. 
While heaven has light or earth has graves ; — 

Spirits of fire, that brood not long, 

But flash resentment back for \vrong ; 



a Derbend. — "Les Turcs appellent cette ville Demir Capi, Porte de Fer: 
ce sont les Caspiae Portse des anciens." — D'Herbdot. 



214 LALLA ROOKH. 

And hearts where, slow but deep, the seeds 
Of vengeance ripen into deeds, 
Till, in some treacherous hour of calm. 
They burst, lil<e Zeilan's giant palm,"* 
Whose buds fly open with a sound 
That shakes the pigmy forests round ! 

Yes, Emir ! he, who scaled that tower, 

And, had he reached thy slumbering breast, 
Had taught thee, in a Gheber's power 

How safe ev'n tyrant heads may rest- 
Is one of many, brave as he, " % 
Who loathe thy haughty race and thee ; 
Who, though they know the strife is vain, 
Who, though they know the riven chain 
Snaps but to enter in the heart 
Of him who rends its links apart, 
Yet dare the issue, — blessed to be 
Ev'n for one bleeding nioment free. 
And die in pangs of liberty ! 
Thou know'st them well — 'tis some moons since. 
Thy turbaned troops and blood-red flags. 



a The Talpot or Talipot-tree. « This beautiful palm-tree, which grows 
m the heart of the forests, may be classed among the loftiest trees, and 
becomes still higher when on the point of bursting forth from its leafy 
summit. The sheath which then envelopes the flower is very large, and, 
when it bursts, makes an explosion like tlie report of a cannon."— 
Thwiberg. 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 215 

Thou satrap of a bigot Prince, 

Have swarmed among these Green Sea crags ; 
Yet here, ev'n here, a sacred band, 
Ay, in the portal of that land 
Thou, Arab, dar'st to call tliy own. 
Their spears across thy path have thrown • 
Here — ere the winds half winged thee o'er — 
Rebellion braved thee from the shore. 
Rebellion ! foul, dishonouring word. 

Whose wrongful blight so oft has stained 
The holiest cause that tongue or sword 

0||Pmortal ever lost or gained. 
How many a spirit, born to bless. 

Hath sunk beneath that withering name, 
Whom but a day's, an hour's success 

Had wafted to eternal fame ! 
As exhalations, when they burst 
From the warm earth, if chilled at first, 
If checked in soaring from the plain, 
Darken to fogs and sink again ; — 
But, if they once triumphant spread 
Their wings above the mountain-head, 
Become enthroned in upper air. 
And turn to sunbright glories there ! 

And who is he, that wields the might 
Of Freedom on the Green Sea brink, 



216 LALLA ROOKH. 

Before whose sabre's dazzling light,* 

The eyes of Yemen's warriors wink ? 
Who comes, embowered in the spears 
Of Kerman's hardy mountaineers ? — 
Those mountaineers that, truest, last, 

Cling to their country's ancient rites, 
As if that God, whose eyelids cast 

Their closing gleam on Iran's heights, 
Among her snowy mountains threw 
The last light of his worship too ! 

'Tis Hafed — name of fear, whose soun^^ 

Chills like the muttering of a charm ! — 
Shout but that awful name around, 

And palsy shakes the manliest arm. 
'Tis Hafed, most accursed and dire 
(So ranked by Moslem hate and ire) 
Of all the rebel Sons of Fire ; 
Of whose malign, tremendous power 
The Arabs, at their mid- watch hour. 
Such tales of fearful wonder tell. 
That each affrighted sentinel 
Pulls down his cowl upon his eyes. 
Lest Hafed in the midst should rise ! 



a « When the bright cimitars make the eyes of our heroes wink." — Tits 
Moallakat, Poem of Amru. 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 217 

A man, they say, of monstrous birth, 
A mingled race- of flame and earth. 
Sprung from those old, enchanted kings,** 

Who in their fairy helms, of yore, 
A feather from the mystic wings 

Of the Simoorgh resistless wore ; 
And gifted by the Fiends^ of Fire, 
Who groaned to see their shrines expire. 
With charms that, all in vain withstood. 
Would drown the Koran's light in blood ! 

Such*were the tales that won belief, 

And such the colouring Fancy gave 
To a young, warm, and dauntless Chief, — 

One who, no more than mortal brave. 
Fought for the land his soul adored. 

For happy homes and altars free, — 
His only talisman, the sword. 

His only spell-word, Liberty ! 
One of that ancient hero line, 
Along whose glorious current shine 
Names that have sanctified their blood ; 
As Lebanon's small mountain flood 

1 Tahmuras, and other ancient Kings of Persia ; whose adventures in Fairy- 
land among the Peris and Dives may be found in Richardson's curious Disserta 
tion. The griffin Simoorgh, they say, took some feathers from her breast for 
Tahmuras, witli which he adorned his helmet, and transmitted them afterwards 
to his descendants, 

T 



218 lalla rookh. 



Is rendered holy by the ranks 
Of sainted cedars on its banks.* 
'Twas not for him to crouch the knee 
Tamely to Moslem tyranny ; 
'Twas not for him, whose soul was cast 
In the bright mould of ages past, 
Whose melancholy spirit, fed 
With all the glories of the dead. 
Though framed for Iran's happiest years, 
Was born among her chains and tears ! — 
'Twas not for him to swell the crowd 
Of slavish heads, that shrinking bowed 
Before the Moslem, as he passed, 
Like shrubs beneath the poison-blast — 
No — far he fled — indignant fled 

The pageant of his country's shame ; 
While every tear her children shed 

Fell on his soul like drops of flame ; 
And, as a lover hails the dawn 

Of a first smile, so welcomed he 



a This rivulet, says Dandini, is called the Holy River from the « cedar 
saints" among which it rises. 

In the Lettres Edifiantes, there is a different cause assigned for its name of 
Holy. « In these are deep caverns, which formerly served as so many cells fcr 
a great number of recluses, who had chosen these retreats as the only witnesses 
upon earth of the severity of their penance. The tears of these pious peni- 
tents gave the river of whicn we have just treated the name of the Holy River.*' 
— See Chateaubriand's Beauties of Christianity. 



THE F I R E - W O R S H I P P E II S. 219 

The sparkle of the first sword drawn 
For vengeance and for liberty ! 

But vain was valour — vain the flower 
Of Kerman, in that deathful hour, 
Against Al Hassan's whelming power. 
In vain they met him, helm to helm, 
Upon the threshold of that realm 
He came in bigot pomp to sway, 
And with their corpses blocked his way — 
In vain — for every lance they raised. 
Thousands around the conqueror blazed ; 
For every arm that lined their shore, 
Myriads of slaves were wafted o'er, — 
A bloody, bold, and countless crowd, 
Before whose swarm as fast they bowed 
As dates beneath the locust cloud. 

There stood — but one short league away 
From old Harmozia's sultry bay — 
A rocky mountain, o'er the Sea 
Of Oman beetling awfully ; * 



^ This mountain is my own creation, as the « stupendous chain" of which 
I suppose it a link, does not extend quite so far as the shores of the Persian 
Gulf. " This long and lofty range of mountains formerly divided Media from 
Assyria, and now forms the boundary of the Persian and Turkish empires. It 
runs parallel with the River Tigris and Persian Gulf, and almost disappearing 
in the vicinity of Gomberoon, (Hai-mozia,) seems once more to rise in the 



220 LALLA ROOKH. 

A last and solitary link 

Of those stupendous chains that reach 
From the broad Caspian's reedy brink 

Down winding to the Green Sea beach. 
Around its base the bare rocks stood, 
Like naked giants, in the flood, 

As if to guard the Gulf across ; 
While, on its peak, that braved the sky, 
A ruined Temple towered, so high 

That oft the sleeping albatross ^ 
Struck the wild ruins with her wing, 
And from her cloud-rocked slumbering 
Started — to find man's dwelUng there 
In her own silent fields of air ! 
Beneath, terrific caverns gave 
Dark welcome to each stormy wave 
That dashed, like midnight revellers, in ; — 
And such the strange, mysterious din 
At tim.es throughout those caverns rolled, — 
And such the fearful wonders told. 
Of restless sprites imprisoned there, 
That bold were Moslem, who would dare, 



southern districts of Kerman, and following an easterly course through the centre 
of Meckraun and Baloucliistan, is entirely lost in the deserts of Sinde." — Kin- 
nicr's Persian Empire. 

^ These birds sleep in the air. They are most common about the Cape of 
Good Hope. 



THE F I R E - W R S H I P P E R S. 221 

At twilight hour, to steer his skiff 
Beneath the Gheber's lonely cliff.^ 

On the land side, whose towers sublime, 
That seemed above the grasp of Time, 
Were severed from the haunts of men 
By a wide, deep, and wizard glen. 
So fathomless, so full of gloom. 

No eye could pierce the void between : 
It seemed a place where Gholes might come 
With their foul banquets from the tomb. 

And in its caverns feed unseen. 
Like distant thunder, from below, 

The sound of many torrents came. 
Too deep for eye or ear to know 
If 'twere the sea's imprisoned flow. 

Or floods of ever-restless flame. 
For, each ravine, each rocky spire 
Of that vast mountain stood on fire ;'' 
And, though for ever past the days 
When God was worshipped in the blaze 

a There is an extraordinary hill in this neighbourhood, called Kohe Gubr, 
or the Guebre's mountain. It rises in the form of a lofty cupola, and on the 
summit of it, they say, are the remains of an Atush Kudu or Fire Temple. 
It is superstitiously held to be the residence of Deeves or Sprites, and many 
marvellous stories are recountpd of the injury and witchcraft suflered by 
those who essayed in former days to ascend or explore it." — Pottinger's 
Bcloochistan. 

■" The Ghebers gcnciidly build tlicir temples over subterraneous fires. 



>22 L A L L A R K H. 

That from its lofty altar shone, — 

Though fled the priests, the votaries gone, 

Still did the mighty flame burn on,^ 

Through chance and change, through good and Ul, 

Like its own God's eternal will, 

Deep, constant, bright, unquenchable ! 



Thither the vanquished Hafed led 

His little army's last remains ; — 
" Welcome, terrific glen !" he said ; 
u Thy gloom, that Eblis' self might dread, 

" Is Heaven to him who flies from chains !" 
O'er a dark, narrow bridge- way, known 
To him and to his Chiefs alone. 
They crossed the chasm and gained the towers, — 
" This home," he cried, " at least is ours ; — 
" Here we may bleed, unmocked by hymns 

'<■ Of Moslem triumph o'er our head ; 
" Here we may fall, nor leave our limbs 

" To quiver to the Moslem's tread. 



« " At the city of Yezd, in Persia, which is distinguished by the appellation 
of the Darub Abadut, or Seat of Religion, the Guebres are permitted to have an 
Atush Kudu or Fire Temple (wliich, they assert, has had the sacred fire in it 
since the days of Zoroaster) in their own compartment of the city ; but for this 
indulgence they are indebted to the avarice, not the tolerance of the Persian 
government, which taxes them at twenty-five rupees each man."— Po^/(«gf*'s 
Beloochistan. 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 223 

<< Stretched on this rock, while vultures' beaks 
"Are whetted on our yet warm cheeks, 
"Here — happy that no tyrant's eye 
" Gloats on our torments — we may die !" — 

'Twas night when to those towers they came, 

And gloomily the fitful flame. 

That from the ruined altar broke, 

Glared on his features, as he spoke : — 

" 'Tis o'er — what men could do, we've done — 

" If Iran will look tamely on, 

"And see her priests, her warriors driven 

" Before a sensual bigot's nod, 
"A wretch who shrines his lusts in heaven, 

"And makes a pander of his God ; 
" If her proud sons, her high-born souls, 

" Men, in whose veins — last disgrace ! — 
" The blood of Zal and Rustam'' rolls, — 

" If they will court this upstart race, 
"And turn from Mithra's ancient ray, 
" To kneel at shrines of yesterday ; 
" If they will crouch to Iran's foes, 

" Why, let them — till the land's despair 
" Cries out to Heaven, and bondage grows 

" Too vile for ev'n the vile to bear ! 

^ Ancient heroes of Persia. "Among the Guebres there are some, who 
boast their descent from Rustam." — Stephens's Persia. 



.^^4 L A L I> A R O O K H. 

« Till shame at last, long hidden, burns 
" Their inmost core, and conscience turns 
"Each coward tear the slave lets fall 
" Back on his heart in drops of gall. 
"But Aere, at least, are arms unchained, 
" And souls that thraldom never stained ! — 

" This spot, at least, no foot of slave 
" Or satrap ever yet profaned ; 

" And though but few — though fast the wave 
" Of life is ebbing from our veins, 
" Enough for vengeance still remains. 
" As panthers, after set of sun, 
" Rush from the roots of Lebanon 
« Across the dark-sea robber's way,* 
" We'll bound upon our startled prey ; 
" And when some hearts that proudest swell 
" Have felt our falchion's last farewell ; 
" When Hope's expiring throb is o'er, 
" And ev'n Despair can prompt no more, 
" This spot shall be the sacred grave 
" Of the last few who, vainly brave, 
" Die for the land they cannot save !" 

His Chiefs stood round — each shining blade 
Upon the broken altar laid — 

a See Russel's account of the panther's attacking travellers in the night a, 
llic soa-shorc about the rot)ts of Lebanon. 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 225 

And though so wild and desolate 

Those courts, where once the Mighty sate 

Nor longer on those mouldering towers 

Was seen the feast of fruits and flowers, 

With which of old the Magi fed 

The wandering Spirits of their Dead ; ^ 

Though neither priest nor rites were there. 

Nor charmed leaf of pure pomegranate ; ^ 
Nor hymn, nor censer's fragrant air. 

Nor symbol of their worshipped planet ; "^ 
Yet the same God that heard their sires 
Heard them^ while on that altar's fires 
They swore ^ the latest, holiest deed 
Of the few hearts, still left to bleed. 
Should be, in Iran's injured name. 
To die upon that Mount of Flame — 



a "Among other ceremonies, the Magi used to place upon the tops of high 
towers various kinds of rich viands, upon which it was supposed the Peris and 
the spirits of their departed heroes regaled themselves." — Richardson. 

^ In the ceremonies of the Ghebers round their Fire, as described by Lord, 
« the Daroo," he says, « giveth them water to drink, and a pomegranate leaf to 
^chew in the mouth, to cleanse them from inward uncleanness." 

<= "Early in the morning, they (the Parsees or Ghebers at Oulam) go in 
crowds to pay their devotions to the Sun, to whom upon all the altars there are 
spheres consecrated, made by magic, resembling the circles of the sun, and when 
the sun rises, these orbs seem to be mflamed, and to turn round with a great 
noise. They have every one a censer in their hands, and offer incense to the 
sun." — Rabbi Benjamin. 

^ "Nul d'entre eux oseroit se parjurer, quand il a pris a, temoin cet Element 
terrible et vengeur." — Encydopedie Frangoise. 



226 L A L L A R O O K H. 

The last of all her patriot line, 
Before her last untrampled Shrine ! 

Brave, suffering souls ! they little knew 
How many a tear their injuries drew 
From one meek maid, one gentle foe, 
Whom love first touched with others' woe — 
Whose life, as free from thought as sin, 
Slept like a lake, till Love threw in 
His talisman, and woke the tide. 
And spread its trembling circles wide. 
Once, Emir ! thy unheeding child. 
Mid all this havoc, bloomed and smiled, — 
Tranquil as on some battle-plain 

The Persian lily shines and towers," 
Before the combat's reddening stain 

Hath fallen upon her golden flowers. 
Light-hearted maid, unawed, unmoved, 
While Heaven but spared the sire she loved, 
Once at thy evening tales of blood 
Unlistening and aloof she stood — 
And oft, when thou hast paced along 

Thy Harara halls with furious heat. 



a " A vivid verdure succeeds the autumnal rains, and the ploughed fields 
are covered with the Persian lily, of a resplendent yellow colour." — RusseVs 
Aleppo. 



THE FIRE-WOKS HIPPEKS. 227 



Hast thou not cursed her cheerful song, 

That came across thee, calm and sweet. 
Like lutes of angels, touched so near 
Hell's confines, that the damned can hear ! 



Far other feelings Love hath brought — 

Her soul all flame, her brow all sadness, 
She now has but the one dear thought, 

And thinks that o'er, almost to madness! 
Oft doth her sinking heart recall 
His words — "for my sake weep for all ;" 
And bitterly, as day on day 

Of rebel carnage fast succeeds, 
She weeps a lover snatched away 

In every Gheber wretch that bleeds. 
There's not a sabre meets her eye. 

But with his life-blood seems to swiin ; 
There's not an arrow wings the sky, 

But fancy turns its point to him. 
No more she brings with footsteps light 
Al Hassan's falchion for the fight ; 
And — had he looked with clearer sight. 
Had not the mists, that ever rise 
From a foul spirit, dimmed his eyes — 
He would have marked her shuddering frame, 
When from the field of blood he came, 



228 LALLA ROOKH. 



The faltering speech — the look estranged — 
Voice, step, and life, and beauty changed — 
He would have marked all this, and known 
Such change is wrought by Love alone. 

Ah ! not the Love that should have blessed 
So young, so innocent a breast ; 
Not the pure, open, prosperous Love, 
That, pledged on earth and sealed above. 
Grows in the world's approving eyes, 

In friendship's smiles and home's caress, 
Collecting all the heart's sweet ties 

Into one knot of happiness ! 
No, HiNDA, no, — thy fatal flame 
Is nursed in silence, sorrow, shame ; — 

A passion, without hope or pleasure, 
In thy soul's darkness buried deep. 

It lies, like some ill-gotten treasure, — 
Some idol, without shrine or name, 
O'er which its pale-eyed votaries keep 
Unholy watch, while others sleep. 

Seven nights have darkened Oman's Sea, 
Since last, beneath the moonlight ray, 

She saw his light oar rapidly 

Hurry her Gheber's bark away, — 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 239 

And still she goes, at midnight hour, 

To weep alone in that high bower. 

And watch, and look along the deep 

For him whose smiles first made her weep ; — 

But watching, weeping, all was vain ; 

She never saw his bark again. 

The owlet's solitary cry. 

The night-hawk, flitting darkly by. 

And oft the hateful carrion bird. 
Heavily flapping his clogged wing. 
Which reeked with that day's banqueting — 

Was all she saw, was all she heard. 

'Tis the eighth morn — Al Hassan's brow 

Is brightened with unusual joy — 
What mighty mischief glads him now, 

Who never smiles but to destroy ? 
The sparkle upon Herkend's Sea, 
When tossed at midnight furiously ,** 
Tells not of wreck and ruin nigh. 
More surely than that smiling eye ! 
"Up, daughter, up — the Kerna's'' breath 
"Has blown a blast would waken death, 

a "It is observed, with respect to the Sea of Herkend, that when it is tossed 
by tempestuous winds, it sparkles like fire." — Travels of Two Mohammedans. 

u A kind of trumpet ; — it « was that used by Tamerlane, the sound of which 
is described as uncommonly dreadful, and so loud as to be heard at the distance 
of several miles." — Richardson. 

U 



230 LALLA ROOKH. 

"And yet thou sleep'st — up, child, and see 
" This blessed day for Heaven and me, 
"A day more rich in Pagan blood 
" Than ever flashed o'er Oman's flood. 
"Before another dawn shall shine, 
" His head — heart — limbs will all be mine ; 
" This very night his blood shall steep 
" These hands all over ere I sleep !" — 



i^ His blood!" she faintly screamed — her mind 
Still singling one from all mankind. — 
" Yes — spite of his ravines and towers, 
"Hafed, my child, this night is ours. 
" Thanks to all- conquering treachery, 

" Without whose aid the links accursed 
"That bind these impious slaves, would be 

" Too strong for Alla's self to burst ! 
" That rebel fiend, whose blade has spread 
"My path with piles of Moslem dead, 
" Whose baffling spells had almost driven 
"Back from their course the Swords of Heaven, 
" This night, with all his band, shall know 
"How deep an Arab's steel can go, 
*' When God and Vengeance speed the blow. 
"And — Prophet ! by that holy wreath 



THE FIRE -WORSHIPPERS. 231 

" Thou wor'st on Ohod's field of death,'* 
"I swear, for every sob that parts 
" In anguish from these heathen hearts, 
"A gem from Persia's plundered mines 
" Shall glitter on thy Shrine of Shrines. 
" But, ha! — she sinks — that look so wild — 
" Those livid lips — my child, my child, 
"This life of blood befits not thee, 
" And thou must back to Araby. 

" Ne'er had I risked thy timid sex 
" In scenes that man himself might dread, 
" Had I not hoped our every tread 

" Would be on prostrate Persian necks — 
" Cursed race, they offer swords instead! 
" But cheer thee, maid, — the wind that now 
" Is blowing o'er thy feverish brow, 
" To-day shall waft thee from the shore ; 
"And, e'er a drop of this night's gore 
"Have time to chill in yonder towers, 
" Thou'lt see thy own sweet Arab bowers !" 

His bloody boast was all too true ; 
There lurked one wretch among the few 



* " Mohammed had two helmets, an interior and exterior one ; the latter 
o{ which, called Al Mawashah, the fillet, wreath, or wreathed garland, he wore 
al the battle of Ohod." — Universal History. 



232 LALLA ROOKH. 

Whom Hafed's eagle eye could count 

Around him on that Fiery Mount, — 

One miscreant, who for gold betrayed 

The pathway through the valley's shade 

To those high towers, where Freedom stood 

In her last hold of flame and blood. 

Left on the field last dreadful night, 

When, sallying from their Sacred height. 

The Ghebers fought hope's farewell fight, 

He lay — but died not with the brave ; 

That sun, which should have gilt his grave. 

Saw him a traitor and a slave ; — 

And, while the few, who thence returned 

To their high rocky fortress, mourned 

For him among the matchless dead 

They left behind on glory's bed, 

He lived, and, in the face of morn, 

Laughed them and Faith and Heaven to scorn. 



for a tongue to curse the slave, 
Whose treason, like a deadly blight. 

Comes o'er the councils of the brave. 
And blasts them in their hour of might ! 

May Life's unblessed cup for him 

Be drugged with treacheries to the brim, — 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 233 

With hopes, that but allure to flj', 

With joys J that vanish while he sips, 
Like Dead-Sea fruits, that tempt the eye. 

But turn to ashes on the lips ! ^ 
His country's curse, his children's shame. 
Outcast of virtue, peace, and fame. 
May he, at last, with lips of flame 
On the parched desert thirsting die, — ■ 
While lakes, that shone in mockery nigh,'' 
Are fading off, untouched, untasted. 
Like the once glorious hopes he blasted' 



^ " They say that there ave apple-trees upon the sides of this sea, which bear 
very lovely fruit, but within are all full of ashes." — Thcvenot. The same is 
asserted of the oranges there ; v. Witman's Travels in Asiatic Turkey. 

« The Asphalt Lake, known by the name of the Dead Sea, is very remark- 
able on account of the considerable proportion of salt which it contains. In 
this respect it surpasses every other known water on the surface of the earth. 
This great proportion of bitter-tasted salts is the reason why neither animal nor 
plant can live in this water. Klaproth's Chemical Analysis of the Water of 
the Dead Sea, Annals of Philosophy, January, 1813. Hasselquist, however 
doubts the truth of this last assertion, as there are shell-fish to be found in the 
lake. 

Lord Byron has a similar allusion to the fruits of the Dead Sea, in that 
wonderful display of genius, his third Canto of Childe Harold, — magnificent 
beyond any thing, perhaps, that even he has ever written. 

^ " The Suhrab or Water of the Desert is said to be caused by the rarefaction 
of the atmosphere from extreme heat ; and, which augments the delusion, it is 
most frequent in hollows, where water might be expected to lodge. I have seen 
bushes and trees reflected in it, with as much accuracy as though it had been 
the face of a clear and still lake." — Pottingcr. 

"As to the unbelievers, their works are like a vapour in a plain, which the 
thirsty traveller thinkcth to be water, until when he cometh thereto he findeth 
it to be nothing." — Koran, chap. 24. 

u 2 



234 LALLA ROOKH. 



And, when from earth his spirit flies, 
Just Prophet, let the damned-one dwell 

Full in the sight of Paradise, 

Beholding heaven, and feeling hell ! 



LALLA ROOKH. 235 



Lalla Rookh had, the night before, been visited by a 
dream, which, in spite of the impending fate of poor Hafed, 
made her heart more than usually cheerful during the 
morning, and gave her cheeks all the freshened animation 
of a flower that the Bid-musk has just passed over.^ She 
fancied that she was sailing on that Eastern Ocean, where 
the sea-gipsies, who live for ever on the water, ^ enjoy a 
perpetual summer in wandering from isle to isle, when she 
saw a small gilded bark approaching her. It was like one 
of those boats which the Maldivian islanders send adrift. 



3 " A wind wliich prevails in February, called Bidmusk, from a small and 
odoriferous flower of that name." — " The wind which blows these flowers com- 
monly lasts till the end of the month." — Le Bruyn. 

1^ " The Biajus are of two races; the one is settled on Borneo, and are a rude 
but warlike and industrious nation, who reckon themselves the original possessors 
of the island of Borneo. The other is a species of sea-gipsies or itinerant fisher- 
men, who live in small covered boats, and enjoy a perpetual summer on the 
eastern ocean, shifting to leeward from island to island, with the variations of 
the monsoon. In some of their customs this singular race resemble the natives 
of the Maldivia islands. The Maldivians annually launch a small bark, loaded 
with perfumes, gums, flowers, and odoriferous wood, and turn it adrifl at the 
mercy of winds and waves, as an oflTering to the Spirit of the Winds; and some- 
times similar ofierings are made to the spirit whom they term the King of the 
Sea. In like manner the Biajus perform their oflTering to the god of evil, 
launching a small bark, loaded with all the sins and misfortunes of the nation, 
which are imagined to fall on the unhappy crew that may be so unlucky as first 
to meet with it." — Dr. Leyden on the Languages and Literature of the Indo- 
Chinese Nations. 



236 LALLA ROOKH. 

at the mercy of winds and waves, loaded with perfumes, 
flowers, and odoriferous wood, as an offering to the Spirit 
whom they call King of the Sea. At first, this little bark 
appeared to be empty, but, on coming nearer 

She had proceeded thus far in relating the dream to her 
Ladies, when Feramorz appeared at the door of the pavilion. 
In his presence, of course, every thing else was forgotten, 
and the continuance of the story was instantly requested by 
all. Fresh wood of aloes was set to burn in the cassolets ; — 
the violet sherbets^ were hastily handed round, and after a 
short prelude on his lute, in the pathetic measure of Nava,'' 
which is always used to express the lameniations of absent 
lovers, the Poet thus continued : — 



^ " The sweet-scented violet is one of the plants most esteemed, particularly 
for its great use in Sorbet, which they make of violet sugar." — Hassdquist. 

"The sherbet they most esteem, and which is drank by the Grand Signior 
himself, is made of violets and sugar." — Tavernier. 

^ " Last of all she took a guitar, and sung a pathetic air in the measure 
called Nava, which is always used to express the lamentations of absent lovers." 
— Persian Tales. 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 337 



The day is lowering — stilly black 
Sleeps the grim wave, while heaven's rack, 
Dispersed and wild, 'twixt earth and sky 
Hangs like a shattered canopy. 
There's not a cloud in that blue plain 

But tells of storm to come or past ; — 
Here, flying loosely as the mane 

Of a young war-horse in the blast ; — 
There rolled in masses dark and swelling, 
As proud to be the thunder's dwelling ! 
While some, already burst and riven. 
Seem melting down the verge of heaven ; 
As though the infant storm had rent 

The mighty womb that gave him birtli, 
And, having swept the firmament, 

Was now in fierce career for earth. 

On earth 'twas yet all calm around, 
A pulseless silence, dread, profound, 
More awful than the tempest's sound. 
The diver steered for Ormus' bowers, 
And moored his skiff till calmer hours; 



2;^8 LALLA ROOKH. 

The sea-birds, with portentous screech, 
Flew fast to land ; — upon the beech 
The pilot oft had paused, with glance 
Turned upward to that wild expanse : — 
And all was boding, drear, and dark 
As her own soul, when Hinda's bark 
Went slowly from the Persian shore. — 
No music timed her parting oar,^ 
Nor friends upon the lessening strand 
Lingered, to wave the unseen hand. 
Or speak the farewell, heard no more ; — 
But lone, unheeded, from the bay 
The vessel takes its mournful way, 
Like some ill- destined bark that steers 
In silence through the Gate of Tears.^ 

And where was stern Al Hassan then ? 
Could not that saintly scourge of men 
From bloodshed and devotion spare 
One minute for a farewell there ? 



a « The Easterns used to set out on their longer voyages with ausic." — 
Harmer. 

^ « The Gate of Tears, the straits or passage into the Red Sea, commonly 
called Babelmandel. It received this name from the old Arabians, on account 
of the danger of the navigation, and the number of sMpwrecks by which it was 
distinguished ; which induced them to consider as dead, and to wear mourning 
for all who had the boldness to hazard the passage through it into the Ethiopic 
ocean." — Richardson, 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 339 

No — close within, in changeful fits 
Of cursing and of prayer, he sits 
In savage "loneliness to brood 
Upon tlie coming night of blood, — 

With that keen, second scent of death 
By which the vulture snuffs his food 

In the still warm and living breath ! * 
While o'er the wave his weeping daughter 
Is wafted from these scenes of slaughter, — 
As a young bird of Babylon,'' 
Let loose to tell of victory won. 
Flies home, with wing, ah ! not unstained 
By the red hands that held her chained. 



And does tlie long-left home she seeks 
Lignt up no gladness on her cheeks ? 
The flowers she nursed — the well-known groves, 
Where oft in dreams her spirit roves — 
Once more to see her dear gazelles 
Come bounding with their silver bells ; 
Her birds' new plumage to behold. 
And the gay, gleaming fishes count, 



^^ « 1 have been told that whensoever an animal falls down dead, one or 
more vultures, unseen before, instantly appear." — Pennant. 

^ " They fasten some writing to the wings of a Bagdat, or Babylonian 
pigeon." — Travels of certain Englishmen. 



240 LALLA ROOKH. 

She left, all filleted with gold, 

Shooting around their jasper fount ; " 
Her little garden mosque to see, 

And once again, at evening hour, 
To tell her ruby rosary," 

In her own sweet acacia bower, — 
Can these delights that wait her now, 
Call up no sunshine on her brow ? 
No, — silent, from her train apart, — 
As if ev'n now she felt at heart 
The chill of her approaching doom, — 
She sits, all lovely in her gloom 
As a pale Angel of the Grave ; 
And o'er the wide, tempestuous wave, 
Looks, with a shudder, to those towers, 
Where, in a few short awful hours, 
Blood, blood, in streaming tides shall run, 
Foul incense for to-morrow's sun ! 
" Where art thou, glorious stranger ! thou, 
"So loved, so lost, where art thou. now? 
" Foe — Gheber — infidel — whate'er 
"Th' unhallowed name thou'rt doomed to bear, 

=1 "The Empress of Jehan-Guire used to divert herself with feeding tame fish 
in lier canals, some of which were many years afterwards known by fillets of 
gold, wliich she caused to be put round them." — Harris. 

^ "Le Tespih, qui est un chapelet, compose de 99 petites boules d'agathe, 
de jaspe, d'ambre, de corail, ou d'autre matiere precieuse. J'en ai vu un 
superbe au Seigneur Jerpos; il etoit de belles et grosses perles parfaites et 
egales, estime trente mille piastres." — Toikrini. 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 241 

" Still glorious — still to this fond heart 
" Dear as its blood, whate'er thou art! 
"Yes — Alla, dreadful All A ! yes — 
"If there be wrong, be crime in this, 
" Let the black waves that round us roll, 
"Whelm me this instant, ere my soul, 
" Forgetting faith^ — home — father — all — 
"Before its earthly idol fall, 
"Nor worship ev'n Thyself above him — 
"For, 0, so wildly do I love him, 
" Thy Paradise itself were dim 
"And joyless, if not shared with hirn!" 



Her hands were clasped — Her eyes upturned, 

Dropping their tears like moonlight rain ; 
And, though her lip, fond raver ! burned 

With words of passion, bold, profane, 
Yet was there light around her brow, 

A holiness in those dark eyes. 
Which showed, — though wandering earthward 
now, — 

Her spirit's home was in the skies 
Yes — for a spirit pure as hers 
Is always pure, ev'n while it errs ; 
As sunshine, broken in the rill, 
Though turned astray, is sunshine still! 



242 LALLA ROOKH. 

So wholly had her mind forgot 

All thoughts but one, she heeded not 

The rising storm — the wave that cast 

A moment's midnight, as it passed — 

Nor heard the frequent shout, the tread 

Of gathering tumult o'er her head — 

Clashed swords, and tongues that seemed to vie 

With the rude riot of the sky. 

But, hark! — that war-whoop on the deck — 

That crash, as if each engine there, 
Mast, sails, and all, were gone to wreck. 

Mid yells and stampings of despair ! 
Merciful Heaven ! what can it be ? 
'Tis not the storm, though fearfully 
The ship has shuddered as she rode 
O'er mountain-waves. — "Forgive me, Godf 
" Forgive me" — shrieked the maid, and knelt 
Trembling all over — for she felt 
As if her judgment-hour was near ; 
While crouching round, half dead with fear. 
Her handmaids clung, nor breathed, nor stirred — 
When, hark ! — a second crash — a third — 
And now, as if a bolt of thunder 
Had riven the labouring planks asunder. 
The deck falls in — what horrors then ! 
Blood, waves, and tackle, swords and men 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 243 

Come mixed together through the chasm, — 
Some wretches in their dying spasm 
Still fighting on — and some that call 
" For God and Iran !" as they fall ! 

Whose was the hand that turned away 
The perils of th' infuriate fray, 
And snatched her breathless from beneath 
This wilderment of wreck and death ? 
She knew not — for a faintness came 
Chill o'er her, and her sinking frame 
Amid the ruins of that hour 
Lay, like a pale and scorched flower, 
Beneath the red volcano's shower. 
But, ! the sights and sounds of dread 
That shocked her ere her senses fled ! 
The yawning deck — the crowd that strove 
Upon the tottering planks above — 
The sail, whose fragments, shivering o'er 
The strugglers' heads, all dashed with gore, 
Fluttered like bloody flags — the clash 
Of sabres, and the lightning's flash 
Upon their blades, high tossed about 
Like meteor brands "^ — as if throughout 
The elements one fury ran, 

* The meteors that Pliny calls "faces." 



244 LALLA ROOKH. 

One general rage, that left a doubt 
Which was the fiercer, Heaven or Man ! 



Once too — but no — it could not be — 

'Twas fancy all — yet once she thought, 
While yet her fading eyes could see, 

High on the ruined deck she caught 
A glimpse of that unearthly form, 

That glory of her soul, — ev'n then. 
Amid the whirl of wreck and storm, 

Shining above his fellow-men, 
As, on some black and troublous night, 
The star of Egypt,* whose proud light 
Never hath beamed on those who rest 
In the White Islands of the West,^ 
Burns through the storm with looks of flame 
That put Heaven's cloudier eyes to shame. 
But no — 'twas but the minute's dream — 
A fantasy — and ere the scream 
Had half-way passed her pallid lips, 
A deathlike swoon, a chill eclipse 
Of soul and sense its darkness spread 
Around her, and she sunk, as dead. 



a "The brilliant Canopus, unseen in European climates." — Brown. 
^ See Wilford's learned Essays on the Sacred Isles in the West. 



THE F I R E - W O R S H I P P E 11 S. 245 

How calm, how beautiful comes on 

The stilly hour, when storms are gone ; 

When warring winds have died away, 

And clouds, beneath the glancing ray. 

Melt off, and leave the land and sea 

Sleeping in bright tranquillity, — 

Fresh as if Day again were born, 

Again upon the lap of Morn ! 

When the light blossoms, rudely torn 

And scattered at the whirlwind's will, 

Hang floating in the pure air still. 

Filling it all with precious balm, 

In gratitude for this sweet calm ; — 

And every drop the thunder-showers 

Have left upon the grass and flowers 

Sparkles, as 'twere that lightning-gem "■ 

Whose liquid flame is born of them ! 

When, 'stead of one unchanging breeze. 
There blow a thousand gentle airs. 
And each a different perfume bears,— 

As if the loveliest plants and trees 

Had vassal breezes of their own 

To watch and wait on them alone, 
And waft no other breath than theirs : 

a A precious stone of the Intlics, called by the ancients Ceraunium, because 
it was supposed to be found in places where thunder had fallen. Tertullian 
sa)'s it has a glittering appearance, as if there had been fire in it; and the author 
of the Dissertation in Harris's Voyages supposes it to be the opal. 



246 LALLAROOKH. 

When the blue waters rise and fall, 
In sleepy sunshine mantling all ; 
And ev'n that swell the tempest leaves 
Is like the full and silent heaves 
Of lovers' hearts, when newly blessed. 
Too newly to be quite at rest. 

Such was the golden hour that broke 
Upon the world, when Hinda woke 
From her long trance, and heard around 
No motion but the water's sound 
Rippling against the vessel's side. 
As slow it mounted o'er the tide. — 
But where is she ? — her eyes are dark, 
Are wildered still — is this the bark, 
The same, that from Harmozia's bay 
Bore her at morn — whose bloody way 
The sea-dog tracked ? — no — strange and new 
Is all that meets her wondering view. 
Upon a galliot's deck she lies. 

Beneath no rich pavilion's shade, — 
No plumes to fan her sleeping eyes, 

Nor jasmine on her pillow laid. 
4* But the rude litter, roughly spread 
With war-cloaks, is her homely bed. 
And shawl and sash, on javelins hung. 
For awning o'er her head are flung. 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 247 

Shuddering she looked around — there lay 

A group of warriors in the sun, 
Resting their limbs, as for that day 

Their ministry of death were done. 
Some gazing on the drowsy sea, 
Lost in unconscious reverie ; 
And some, who seemed but ill to brook 
That sluggish calm, with many a look 
To the slack sail impatient cast. 
As loose it flagged around the mast. 

Blessed Alla ! who shall save her now ? 

There's not in all that warrior band 
One Arab sword, one turbaned brow 

From her own Faithful Moslem land. 
Their garb — the leathern belf* that wraps 

Each yellow vest ^ — that rebel hue — 
The Tartar fleece upon their caps '^ — 

Yes — yes — her fears are all too true. 
And Heaven hath, in this dreadful hour. 
Abandoned her to Hafed's power ; — 
Hafed, the Gheber ! — at the thought 

Her very heart's blood chills within ; 

m 

^ D'Herbelot, art. Agduani. 

^ " The Guebres are known by a dark yellow colour, which the men affect 
in their clothes." — Thevenot. 

'= " The Kolah, or cap, worn by the Persians, is made of the skin of the sheep 
of Tartary." — Waring. 



248 L A L L A K (J O K H. 



He, whom her soul was hourly taught 
To loathe, as some foul fiend of sin, 
Some minister, whom Hell had sent 
~ To spread its blast, where'er he went. 
And fling, as o'er our earth he trod. 
His shadow betwixt man and God! 
And she is now his captive, — thrown 
In his fierce hands, alive, alone ; 
His the infuriate band she sees, 
All infidels — all enemies ! 
Wliat was the daring hope that then 
Crossed her like lightning, as again. 
With boldness that despair had lent. 

She darted through that armed crowa 
A look so searching, so intent. 

That ev'n the sternest warrior bowed 
Abashed, when he her glances caught. 
As if he guessed whose form they sought! 
But no — she sees him not — 'tis gone, 
The vision .that before her shone 
Through all the maze of blood and storm, 
Is fled — 'twas but a phantom form — 
One of those passing, rainbow dreams, 
^ Half light, half shade, which Fancy's beams 
Paint on the fleeting mists that roll 
In trance or slumber round the soul. 



THE FIRE -WORSHIPPERS. 249 

But now the bai'k, with liveher bound, 

Scales the blue wave — the crew's in motion, 
The oars are out, and with light sound 

Break the bright mirror of the ocean. 
Scattering its brilliant fragments round. 
And now she sees — with horror sees. 

Their course is toward that mountain-hold, — 
Those towers, that make her life-blood freeze. 
Where Mecca's godless enemies 

Lie, like beleaguered scorpions, rolled 

In their last deadly, venomous fold ! 
Amid th' illumined land and flood 
Sunless that mighty mountain stood ; 
Save where, above its awful head. 
There shone a flaming cloud, blood-red, 
As 'twere the flag of destiny 
Hung out to mark where death would be ! 



Had her bewildered mind the power 
Of thought in this terrific hour. 
She well might marvel where or how 
Man's foot could scale that mountain's brow, 
Since ne'er had Arab heard or known 
Of path but through the glen alone. — 
But every tliought was lost in fear, 
When, as their bounding bark drew near 



250 LALLA ROOKH. 



The craggy base, she felt the waves 
Hurry them toward those dismal caves 
That from the Deep in windings pass 
Beneath that Mount's volcanic mass ; — 
And loud a voice on deck commands 
To lower the mast and light the brands !- 
Instantly o'er the dashing tide 
Within a cavern's mouth they glide, 
Gloomy as that eternal Porch 

Through which departed spirits go ; — 
Not ev'n the flare of brand and torch 
Its flickering light could further throw 
Than the thick flood that boiled below, 
Silent they floated — as if each 
Sat breathless, and too awed for speech 
In that dark chasm, where even sound 
Seemed dark, — so sullenly around 
The gfoblin echoes of the cave 
Muttered it o'er the long black w^ave 
As 'twere some secret of the grave ! 



But soft — they pause — the current turns 
Beneath them from its onward track ; — 

Some mighty, unseen barrier spurns 
The vexed tide, all foaming, back, 

And scarce the oars' redoubled force 

Can stem the eddy's whirling course ; 



THE F I R E - W O R S H 1 P P E R S. 251 

When, hark ! — some desperate foot has sprung 

Among the rocks — the chain is flung — 

The oars are up — the grapple clings, 

And the tossed bark in moorings swinefs. 

Just then, a daybeam through the shade 

Broke tremulous — but, ere the maid 

Can see from whence the brightness steals, 

Upon her brow she shuddering feels 

A Adewless hand, that promptly ties 

A bandage round her burning eyes ; 

While the rude litter where she lies, 

Uplifted by the warrior throng. 

O'er the steep rocks is borne along. 



Blest power of sunshine ! — genial Day, 
What balm, what life is in thy ray ! 
To feel thee is such real bliss, 
That had the world no joy but this. 
To sit in sunshine calm and sweet, — 
It were a world too exquisite 
For man to leave it for the gloom, 
The deep, cold shadow of the tomb. 
Ev'n HiNDA, though she saw not where 
Or whither wound the perilous road. 
Yet knew by that awakening air, 
. Which suddenly around her glowed, 



253 LALLA ROOKH. 

That they had risen from darkness then, 
And breathed the sunny world again . 



But soon this bahny freshness fled — 

For now the steepy labyrinth led 

Through damp and gloom — mid crash of boughs, 

And fall of loosened crags, that rouse 

The leopard from his hungry sleep, 

Who, starting, thinks each crag a prey, 
And long is heard, from steep to steep. 

Chasing them down their thundering way ! 
The jackal's cry — the distant moan 
Of the hyena, fierce and lone — 
And that eternal saddening sound 

Of torrents in the glen beneath, 
As 'twere the ever- dark Profound 

That rolls beneath the Bridge of Death ! 
All, all is fearful — ev'n to see. 

To gaze on those terrific things 
She now but blindly hears, would be 

Relief to her imaginings ; 
Since never yet was shape so dread. 

But Fancy, thus in darkness thrown. 
And by such sounds of horror fed. 

Could frame more dreadful of her own. 



THE FIRE -WORSHIPPERS. 253 

But does she dream ? has Fear again 

Perplexed the workings of her brain, 

Or did a voice, all music, then 

Come from the gloom, low whispering near — 

" Tremble not, love, thy Gheber's here?" 

She does not dream — all sense, all ear. 

She drinks the words, "Thy Gheber's here.'* 

'Twas his own voice — she could not err — 

Throughout the breathing world's extent 
There was but one such voice for her. 

So kind, so soft, so eloquent ! 
0, sooner shall the rose of May 

Mistake her own sweet nightingale, 
And to some meaner minstrel's lay 

Open her bosom's glowing veil,^ 
Than Love shall ever doubt a tone, 
A breath of the beloved one ! 

Though blessed, mid all her ills, to think 

She has that one beloved near, 
Whose smile, though met on ruin's brink, 

Hath power to make ev'n ruin dear, — 
Yet soon this gleam of rapture, crossed 
By fears for him, is chilled and lost. 



a A frequent image among the Oriental poets. « The nightingales warbled 
their enchanting notes, and rent the thin veils of the rose-bud and the rose." — 
Jami, 

Y 



354 LALLA ROOKH. 

How shall the ruthless Hafed brook 
That one of Gheber blood should look, 
With aught but curses in his eye, 
On her — a maid of Araby — 
A Moslem maid — the child of him, 

Whose bloody banner's dire success 
Hath left their altars cold and dim, 

And their fair land a wilderness ! 
And, worse than all, that night of blood 

Which comes so fast — ! who shall stay 
The sword, that once hath tasted food 

Of Persian hearts, or turn its way ? 
What arm shall then the victim cover. 
Or from her father shield her lover ? 

" Save him, my God !" she inly cries — 
" Save him this night — and if thine eyes 

" Have ever welcomed with delight 
" The sinner's tears, the sacrifice 

" Of sinners' hearts — guard him this night, 
" And here, before thy throne, I swear 
" From my heart's inmost core to tear 

" Love, hope, remembrance, though they be 
" Linked with each quivering life-string there, 

" And give it bleeding all to Thee ! 
<< Let him but live, — the burning tear, 
"The sighs, so sinful, yet so dear, 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS, 255 

" Which have been all too much his own, 
" Shall from this hour be Heaven's alone. 
"Youth passed in penitence, and age 
" In long and painful pilgrimage, 
" Shall leave no traces of the flame 
" That wastes me now — nor shall his name 
<' E'er bless my lips, but when I pray 
" For his dear spirit, that away 
" Casting from its angelic ray 
" Th' eclipse of earth, he, too, may shine 
" Redeemed, all glorious and all Thine ! 
" Think — think what victory to win 
" One radiant soul like his from sin, — 
" One wandering star of virtue back 
" To its own native, heavenward track ! 
" Let him but live, and both are Thine, 

" Together thine — for, blessed or crossed, 
" Living or dead, his doom is mine, 

"And, if he perish, both are lost!" 



256 L A L L A R K H. 



The next evening Lalla Rookh was entreated by her 
Ladies to continue the relation of her wonderful dream ; but 
the fearful interest that hung round the fate of Hlnda and 
her lover had completely removed every trace of it from her 
mind ; much to the disappointment of a fair seer or two in 
her train, who prided themselves on their skiU in interpreting 
visions, and who had already remarked, as an unlucky omen, 
that the Princess, on tlie very morning after the dream, had 
worn a silk dyed with the blossoms of the sorrowful tree, 
Nilica.^ 

Fadladeen, whose indignation had more than once 
broken out during the recital of some parts of this heterodox 
poem, seemed at length to have made up his mind to the 
infliction ; and took his seat this evening with all the patience 
of a martyr, while the Poet resumed his profane and seditious 
story as foUows : 



a « Blossoms of the sorrowful Nyctanthes give a durable colour to silk." — 
Remarks on the Husbandry of Bengal, p. 200. Nilica is one of the Indian names 
of tliis flower. — Sir W. Jones. The Persians call it Gull. — Carreri. 



THE F I R E - W R S H I P P E R S, 257 



To tearless eyes and hearts at ease 
The leafy shores and sunbright seas, 
That lay beneath that mountain's height, 
Had been a fair, enchanting sight. 
'Twas one of those ambrosial eves 
A day of storm so often leaves 
At its calm setting — when the West 
Opens her golden bowers of rest, 
And a moist radiance from the skies 
Shoots trembling down, as from the eyes 
Of some meek penitent, whose last 
Bright hours atone for dark ones past. 
And whose sweet tears, o'er wrong forgiven, 
Shine, as they fall, with light from heaven ! 

'Twas stillness all — the vdnds that late 

Had rushed through Kerman's almond groves, 

And shaken from her bowers of date 
That cooling feast the traveller loves,^ 



^ " In parts of Kerman, whatever dates are shaken from the trees by the 
wmd they do not touch, but leave them for those wrho have not any, or for tra 
sellers." — Ebn Haukal. 



258 LALLA ROOKH. 

Now, lulled to languor, scarcely curl 

The Green Sea wave, whose waters gleam 
Limpid, as if her mines of pearl 

Were melted all to form the stream ; 
And her fair islets, small and bright. 

With their green shores reflected there 
Look like those Peri isles of light. 

That hang by spell-work in the air. 

But vainly did those glories burst 
On Hinda's dazzled eyes, when first 
The bandage from her brow was taken. 
And, pale and awed as those who waken 
In their dark tombs — when, scowling near, 
The Searchers of the Grave ^ appear, — 
She shuddering turned to read her fate 

In the fierce eyes that flashed around ; 
And saw those towers all desolate. 

That o'er her head terrific frowned. 
As if defying ev'n the smile 
Of that soft, heaven to gild their pile. 
In vain with mingled hope and fear. 
She looks for him whose voice so dear 
Had come, like music, to her ear — 



a The two terrible angels, Monkir and Nakir, who are called "the Searchers 
of the Grave" in the " Creed of the orthodox Mahometans" given by Ockley, 
vol. ii 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 259 

Strange, mocking dream ! — again 'tis fled. 
And 0, the shoots, the pangs of dread 
That through her inmost bosom run, 

When voices from without proclaim 
"Hafed, the Chief," — and, one by one, 

The warriors shout that fearful name ! 
He comes — the rock resounds his tread — 
How shall she dare to lift her head. 
Or meet those eyes whose scorching glare 
Not Yemen's boldest sons can bear ? 
In whose red beam, the Moslem tells, 
Such rank and deadly lustre dwells. 
As in those hellish fires that liq-ht 
The mandrake's charnel leaves at night.'' 
How shall she bear that voice's tone, 
At whose loud battle-cry alone 
Whole squadrons oft in panic ran. 
Scattered like some vast caravan. 
When stretched at evening round the well. 
They hear the thirsting tiger's yell ? 



Breathless she stands, with eyes cast down. 
Shrinking beneath the fiery frown. 



« "The Arabians call the mandrake 'the Devil's candle,' on account of its 
shining appearance in the night." — Richard son. 



260 LALLA ROOKH. 



Which, fancy tells her, from that brow 
Is flashing o'er her fiercely now ; 
And shuddering as she hears the tread 

Of his retiring warrior band. — 
Never was pause so full of dread ; 

Till Hafed with a trembling hand 
Took hers, and leaning o'er her, said, 
" HiNDA ;" — that word was all he spoke. 
And 'twas enough — the shriek that broke 

From her full bosom, told the rest. — 
Panting with terror, joy, surprise, 
The maid but lifts her wondering eyes. 

To hide them on her Gheber's breast ! 
'Tis he, 'tis he — the man of blood, 
The fellest of the Fire-fiend's brood, 
Hafed, the demon of the fight. 
Whose voice unnerves, whose glances blight,- 
Is her own loved Gheber, mild 
And glorious as when first he smiled 
In her lone tower, and left such beams 
Of his pure eye to light her dreams. 
That she believed her bower had given 
Rest to some wanderer from heaven ! 



Moments there are, and this was one, 
Snatched like a minute's g.eam of sun 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 261 

Amid the black Simoom's eclipse — 
Or, like those verdant spots that bloom 

Around the crater's burning lips, 
Sweetening the very edge of doom ! 

The past — the future — all that Fate 

Can bring of dark or desperate 

Around such hours, but makes them cast 

Intenser radiance while they last ! 

Ev'n he, this youth — though dimmed and gone 

Each star of Hope that cheered him on — 

His glories lost — his cause betrayed — 

Iran, his dear-loved country, made 

A land of carcasses and slaves, 

One dreary waste of chains and graves ! 

Himself but lingering, dead at heart, 

To see the last, long struggling breath 
Of Liberty's great soul depart, 

Then lay him down and share her death — 
Ev'n he, so sunk in wretchedness, 

With doom still darker gathering o'er him, 
Yet, in this moment's pure caress, 

In the mild eyes that shone before him, 
Beaming that blest assurance, worth 
All other transports known on earth. 
That he was loved — well, warmly loved — 
! in this precious hour he proved 



262 LALLA ROOKH. 

How deep, how thorough-felt the glow 
Of rapture, kindling out of woe ; — 
How exquisite one single drop 
Of bliss, thus sparkling to the top 
Of misery's cup — how keenly quaffed. 
Though death must follow on the draught ! 



She, too, while gazing on those eyes 

That sink into her soul so deep. 
Forgets aU fears, all miseries. 

Or feels them like the wretch in sleep, 
Whom fancy cheats into a smile. 
Who dreams of joy, and sobs the while ! 
The mighty Ruins where they stood, 

Upon the mount's high, rocky verge, 
Lay open towards the ocean flood. 

Where lightly o'er the illumined surge 
Many a fair bark that, all the day. 
Had lurked in sheltering creek or bay, 
Now bounded on, and gave their sails. 
Yet dripping, to the evening gales ; 
Like eagles, when the storm is done. 
Spreading their wet wings in the sun. 
The beauteous clouds, though daylight's Star 
Had sunk behind the hills of Lar, 
Were still with lingering glories bright, — 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 263 

As if, to grace the gorgeous West, 

The Spirit of departing Light 
That eve had left his sunny vest 

Behind him, ere he winged his flight. 
Never was scene so formed for love ! 
Beneath them waves of crystal move 
In silent swell — Heaven glows above, 
And their pure hearts, to transport given. 
Swell like the wave, and glow like Heaven. 



But ah ! too soon that dream is past — , 

Again, again her fear returns ; — 
Night, dreadful night, is gathering fast, 

More faintly the horizon burns. 
And every rosy tint that lay 
On the smooth sea hath died away. 
Hastily to the darkening skies 
A glance she casts — then wildly cries, 
" At night J he said — and, look, 'tis near — 

" Fly, fly — if yet thou lov'st me, fly — 
" Soon will his murderous band be here, 

" And I shall see thee bleed and die. — 
" Hush ! heard'st thou not the tramp of men 
" Sounding from yonder fearful glen ? — 
" Perhaps ev'n now they climb the wood — 

" Fly, fly — though still the West is bright, 



264 LALLA ROOKH. 



"He'll come — ! yes — he wants thy blood — 
" I know him — he'll not wait for night !" 



In terrors ev'n to agony 

She cUngs around the wondering Chief; — 
" Alas, poor wildered maid ! to me 

" Thou ow'st this raving trance of grief. 
" Lost as I am, naught ever grew 
" Beneath my shade but perished too — 
" My doom is like the Dead Sea air, 
"And nothing lives that enters there! 
"Why were our barks together driven 
"Beneath this morning's furious heaven? 
" Why, when I saw the prize that chance 

" Had thrown into my desperate arms, — 
" When, casting but a single glance 

" Upon thy pale and prostrate charms, 
" I vowed (though watching viewless o'er 

" Thy safety through that hour's alarms) 
" To meet th' unmanning sight no more — 
"Why have I broke that heart-wrung vow? 
"Why weakly, madly met thee now? 
" Start not — that noise is but the shock 

" Of torrents through yon valley hurled^ 
"Dread nothing here — upon this rock 

" We stand above the jarring world. 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 265 

" Alike beyond its hope — its dread — 
" In gloomy safety, like the Dead ! 
" Or, could ev'n earth and hell unite 
" In league to storm this Sacred Height, 
" Fear nothing thou — myself, to-night, 
"And each o'erlooking star that dwells 
" Near God, will be thy sentinels; 
"And, ere to-morrow's dawn shall glow, 

"Back to thy sire " 

" To-morrow ! — no — " 
The maiden screamed — "thou'lt never see 
" To-morrow's sun — death, death will be 
" The night-cry through each reeking tower, 
" Unless we fly, ay, fly, this hour ! 
" Thou art betrayed — some wretch who knew 
" That dreadful glen's mysterious clew — 
" Nay, doubt not — by yon stars, 'tis true — 
" Hath sold thee to my vengeful sire ; 
" This morning, with that smile so dire 
" He wears in joy, he told me all, 
" And stamped in triumph through our hall, 
" As though thy heart already beat 
" Its last life-throb beneath his feet ! 
" Good Heaven, how little dreamed I then 

" His victim was my own loved youth ! 
(( Fly — send — let some one watch the glen — 

"By all my hopes of heaven, 'tis truth!" 



266 LALLA ROOKH. 

! colder than the wind that freezes 

Founts, that but now in sunshine played. 
Is that congealing pang which seizes 

The trusting bosom, when betrayed. 
He felt it — deeply felt — and stood, 
As if the tale had frozen his blood. 

So mazed and motionless was he ; — 
Like one whom sudden spells enchant. 
Or some mute, marble habitant 

Of the still Halls of Ishmonie ! ^ 

But soon the painful chill was o'er, 
And his great soul, herself once more, 
Looked from his brow in all the rays 
Of her best, happiest, grandest days. 
Never, in moment most elate. 

Did that high spirit loftier rise ; — 
WhUe bright, serene, determinate. 

His looks are lifted to the skies. 
As if the signal lights of Fate 

Were shining in those awful eyes I 
'Tis come — his hour of martyrdom 
In Iran's sacred cause is come ; 



a For an account of Ishmonie, the petrified city in Upper Egypt, where it is 
said there are many statues of men, women, &c., to be seen to this day, see 
Perry's View of the Levant. 



THE F I R E - W O K S H I P P E R S. 2<)7 

And, though his life hath passed away- 
Like Hghtning on a stormy day, 
Yet shall his death-hour leave a track 

Of glory, permanent and bright, 
To which the brave of after-times, 
The suffering brave, shall long look back 

With proud regret, — and by its light 

Watch through the hours of slavery's night 
For vengeance on th' oppressor's crimes. 
This rock, his monument aloft, * 

Shall speak the tale to many an age ; 
And hither bards and heroes oft 

Shall come in secret pilgrimage. 
And bring their warrior sons, and tell 
The wondering boys where Hafed fell ; 
And swear them on those lone remains 
Of their lost country's ancient fanes, 
Never — while breath of life shall live 
Within them — never to forgive 
Th' accursed race, whose ruthless chain 
Hath left on Iran's neck a stain 
Blood, blood alone can cleanse again ! 



Such are the swelling thoughts that now 
Enthrone tlfemselves oA Hafed's brow ; 



208 LALLA ROOKH. 

And ne'er did Saint of Issa'' gaze 

On the red wreath, for martyrs twined, 
More proudly than the youth surveys 

That pile, which through the gloom behind. 
Half lighted by the altar's fire, 
Glimmers — ^his destined funeral pyre ! 
Heaped by his own, his comrades' hands. 

Of every wood of odorous breath. 
There, by the Fire-God's shrine it stands, 

Ready to fold in radiant death 
The few still left of those who swore 
To perish there, when hope was o'er — 
The few, to whom that couch of flame. 
Which rescues them from bonds and shame, 
Is sweet and welcome as the bed 
For their own infant Prophet spread. 
When pitying Heaven to roses turned 
The death-flames that beneath him burned ! " 



a Jesus. 

^ The Ghebers say that when Abraham, their great Prophet, was thrown 
into the fire by order of Nimrod, the flame turned instantly into " a bed of roses, 
where the child sweetly reposed." — Tavernier, 

Of their other Prophet, Zoroaster, there is a story told in Dion Prusaus, 
Orat. 36, that, the love of wisdom and virtue leading him to a solitary 
life upon a mountain, he found it one day all m a flame, shining with 
celestial fire, out of which he came without any harm, and instituted certain 
sacrifices to God, who, he declared, then appeared to him. — v. Patrick on 
Exodus, iii. 2. 



THE r IRE-WOK .SHIPPERS. 209 

With watchfulness the maid attends 
His rapid glance, where'er it bends — 
Why shoot his eyes such awful beams ? 
What plans he now ? what thinks or dreams ? 
Alas ! why stands he musing here, 
When every moment teems with fear ? 
"Hafed, my own beloved Lord," 
She kneeling cries — " first, last adored! 
" If in that soul thou'st ever felt 

" Half what thy lips impassioned swore, 
" Here, on my knees that never knelt 

" To any but their God before, 
"I pray thee, as thou lov'st me, fly — 
" Now, now — ere yet their blades are nigh. 
" haste — the bark that bore me hither 

" Can waft us o'er yon darkening sea 
" East — west — alas, I care not whither, 

" So thou art safe, and I with thee ! 
" Go where we will, this hand in thine, 

" Those eyes before me smiling thus, 
" Through good and ill, through storm and shine, 

"The world's a world of love for us ! 
" On some calm, blessed shore we'll dwell, 
"Where 'tis no crime to love too well ; — 
"Where thus to worship tenderly 
" An erring child of light like thee 
"Will not be sin — or, if it be. 



270 LALLA ROOKH. 



" Where we may weep our faults away, 
" Together kneeling, night and day, 
" Thou, for my sake, at Alla's shrine, 
"And I — at any God's, for thine !" 

Wildly these passionate words she spoke — 
Then hung her head, and wept for shame ; 

Sobbing, as if a heartstring broke 

With every deep-heaved sob that came. 

While he, young, warm — ! wonder not 
If, for a moment, pride and fame. 
His oath — his cause — that shrine of flame. 

And Iran's self are all forgot 

For her whom at his feet he sees 

Kneeling in speechless agonies. 

No, blame him not, if Hope awhile 

Dawned in his soul, and threw her smile 

O'er hours to come — o'er days and nights. 

Winged with those precious, pure delights 

Which she, who bends all beauteous there, 

W^as born to kindle and to share. 

A tear or two, which, as he bowed 
To raise the suppliant, trembling stole. 

First warned him of this dangerous cloud 
Of softness passing o'er his soul. 

Starting, he brushed the drops av/ay. 

Unworthy o'er that cheek to stray; — 



THE FIRE -WORSHIPPERS. 271 

. J ■ 

Like one who, on the morn of fight, 
Shakes from his sword the dews of night, 
That had but dimmed, not stained its Ught. 

Yet, though subdued th' unnerving thrill. 
Its warmth, its weakness lingered still 

So touching in each look and tone. 
That the fond, fearing, hoping maid 
Half counted on the flight she prayed. 

Half thought the hero's soul was grown 

As soft, as yielding as her own, 
And smiled and blessed him, while he said — 
" Yes — if there be some happier sphere, 
" Where fadeless truth like ours is dear, — 
" If there be any land of rest 

"For those who love and ne'er forget, 
" ! comfort thee — for safe and bless'd 

" We'll meet in that calm region yet !" 

Scarce had she time to ask her heart 
If good or ill these words impart. 
When the roused youth impatient flew 
To the tower-wall, where, high in view, 
A ponderous sea-horn'' hung, and blew 



^ " The shell called Siiankos, common to India, Africa, and the Mediterranean, 
»nd still used in many parts as a trumpet for blowing alarms or giving signals ; 
it sends forth a deep and hollow sound. — Pennant. 



272 I. A L L A K O O K H. 

< 

A signal, deep and dread as those 
The storm-fiend at his rising blows. — 
Full well his Chieftains, sworn and true 
Through life and death, that signal knew ; 
For 'twas th' appointed warning blast, 
Th' alarm, to tell when hope was past, 
And the tremendous death- die cast ! 
And there, upon the mouldering tower. 
Hath hung this sea-horn many an hour. 
Ready to sound o'er land and sea 
That dirge-note of the brave and free. 

They came — his Chieftains at the call 
Came slowly round, and with them all — 
Alas, how few ! — the worn remains 
Of those who late o'er Kerman's plains 
Went gayly prancing to the clash 

Of Moorish zel and tymbalon. 
Catching new hope from every flash 

Of their long lances in the sun. 
And, as their coursers charged the wind, 
And the white ox-tails streamed behind,"* 
Looking, as if the steeds they rode 
Were winged, and every Chief a God ! 

a « The finest ornament for the horses is made of six large flying tassels of 
long white hair, taken out of the tails of wild oxen, that are to be found in some 
places of the Indies." — Thecemt. 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 273 

How fallen, how altered now ! how wan 

Each scarred and faded visage shone, 

As round the burning shrine they came ; — 

How deadly was the glare it cast, 
As mute they paused before the flame 

To light their torches as they passed ! 
'Twas silence all — the youth hath planned 
The duties of his soldier-band ; 
And each determined brow declares 
His faitliful Chieftains well know theirs. 

But minutes speed — night gems the skies — 
And 0, how soon, ye blessed eyes, 
That look from heaven, ye may behold, 
Sights that will turn your star-fires cold ! 
Breathless with awe, impatience, hope. 
The maiden sees the veteran group 
Her litter silently prepare. 

And lay it at her trembling feet ; — 
And now the youth, with gentle care. 

Hath placed her in the sheltered seat. 
And pressed her hand — that lingering press 

Of hands, that for the last time sever ; 
Of hearts, whose pulse of happiness. 

When that hold breaks, is dead for ever. 
And yet to her this sad caress 

Gives hope — so fondly hope can err ! 



274 LALLA KOOKH. 

'Twas joy, she thought, joy's mute excess — 

Their happy flight's dear harbinger ; 
'Twas warmth — assurance — tenderness — ■ 

'Twas any thing but leaving her. 

"Haste, haste!" she cried, "the clouds grow dark, 
"But still, ere night, we'll reach the bark ; 
"And by to-morrow's daw^n — bliss ! 

" With thee upon the sunb right deep, 
' Far oif, I'll but remember this, 

"As some dark, vanished dream of sleep ; 
"And thou " but ah! — he answers not — 

Good Heaven ! — and does she go alone ? 
She now has reached that dismal spot. 

Where, some hours since, his voice's tone 
Had come to soothe her fears and ills. 
Sweet as the angel Israfil's,^ 
When every leaf on Eden's tree 
Is trembling to his minstrelsy — 
Yet now — now, he is not nigh. — 

" Hafed ! my Hafed ! — if it be 
" Thy will, thy doom this night to die, 

" Let me but stay to die with thee, 
" And I will bless thy loved name, 
" Till the last life-breath leave this frame. 

"The angel Israfil, who has the most melodious voice of all God's crea- 
tures." — Sale. 



THE F I K E - V/ O R S H I P P E R S. 275 

" ! let our lips, our cheeks be laid 
" But near each other while they fade ; 
" Let us but mix our parting breaths, 
"And I can die ten thousand deaths! 
"You too, who hurry me away 
" So cruelly, one moment stay — 

" ! stay — one moment is not much — 
"He yet may come — for him I pray — 
" Hafed ! dear Hafed ! — " all the way 

In wild lamentings, that would touch 
A heart of stone, she shrieked his name 
To the dark woods — no Hafed came : — • 
No — hapless pair — you've looked your last ; — 

Your hearts should both have broken then : 
The dream is o'er — your doom is cast — 

You'll never meet on earth again ! 

Alas for him, who hears her cries ! 

Still half-way down the steep he stands, 
Watching with fixed and feverish eyes 

The glimmer of those burning brands, 
That down the rocks, with mournful ray, 
Light all he loves on earth away ! 
Hopeless as they who, far at sea. 

By the cold moon have just consigned 
The corse of one, loved tenderly. 

To the bleak flood they leave behind ; 



276 L A L L A R O K H. 

And on the deck still lingering stay, 
And long look back, with sad delay, 
To watch the moonlight on the wave. 
That ripples o'er that cheerless grave. 

But see — he starts — what heard he then ? 

That dreadful shout ! — across the glen 

From the land-side, it comes, and loud 

Rings through the chasm ; as if the crowd 

Of fearful things, that haunt that dell. 

Its Gholes and Dives and shapes of hell, 

Had all in one dread howl broke out. 

So loud, so terrible that shout ! 

"They come — the Moslems come!" — he cries. 

His proud soul mounting to his eyes, — 

" Now, Spirits of the Brave, who roam 

" Enfranchised through yon starry dome, 

" Rejoice — for souls of kindred fire 

" Are on the wing to join your choir !" 

He said — and, light as bridegrooms bound 

To their young loves, reclimbed the steep 
And gained the Shrine — his Chiefs stood round- 

Their swords, as with instinctive leap, 
Together, at that cry accursed. 
Had from their sheaths, like sunbeams, burst. 
And hark ! — again — again it rings ; 
Near and more near its echoings 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 277 

Peal through the chasm — ! who that then 
Had seen those Ustening warrior-men, 
With their swords grasped, their eyes of flame 
Turned on their Chief — could doubt the shame, 
Th' indignant shame with which they thrill 
To hear those shouts and yet stand still ? 



He read their thoughts — they were his own — 

"What! while our arms can wield these blades, 
" Shall we die tamely? die alone ? 

« Without one victim to our shades, 
" One Moslem heart, where, buried deep, 
" The sabre from its toil may sleep ? 
" No — God of Iran's burning skies ! 
" Thou scorn'st th' inglorious sacrifice. 
" No — though of all earth's hope bereft, 
" Life, swords, and vengeance still are left. 
" We'll make yon valley's reeking caves 

" Live in the awe-struck minds of men, 
" Till tyrants shudder, when their slaves 

" Tell of the Gheber's bloody glen. 
«' Follow, brave hearts ! — this pile remains 
" Our refuge still from life and chains ; 
"But his the best, the holiest bed, 
"Who sinks entombed in Moslem dead !" 

2 A 



278 LALLA ROOKH. 



Down the precipitous rocks they sprung, 
While vigour, more than human, strung 
Each arm and heart. — Th' exulting foe 
Still through the dark defiles below. 
Tracked by his torches' lurid fire. 

Wound slow, as through Golconda's vale* 
The mighty serpent, in his ire, 

Glides on with glittering, deadly trail. 
No torch the Ghebers need — so well 
They know each mystery of the dell, 
So oft have, in their wanderings, 
Crossed the wild race that round them dwell, 

The very tigers from their delves 
Looked out, and let them pass, as things 

Untamed and fearless like themselves ! 



There was a deep ravine, that lay 

Yet darkling in the Moslem's way ; 

Fit spot to malfe invaders rue 

The many fallen before the few. 

The torrents from that morning's sky 

Had filled the. narrow chasm breast-high. 

And, on each side, aloft and wild, 

Huge cliffs and toppling crags were piled,- 



a See Hoole upon the Story of Siiibad. 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 279 

The guards with which young Freedom lines 
The pathways to her mountain shrines, 
Here at this pass, the scanty band 
Of Iran's last avengers stand ; 
Here wait, in silence like the dead. 
And listen for the Moslem's tread 
So anxiously, the carrion-bird 
Above them flaps his wing unheard ! 

They come — that plunge into the water 
Gives signal for the work of slaughter. 
Now, Ghebers, now — if e'er your blades 

Had point or prowess, prove them now — 
Woe to the file that foremost wades ! 

They come — a falchion greets each brow, 
And, as they tumble, trunk on trunk. 
Beneath the gory waters sunk, 
Still o'er their drowning bodies press 
New victims quick and numberless ; 
Till scarce an arm in Hafed's band. 

So fierce their toil, hath power to stir. 
But listless from each crimson hand 

The sword hangs, clogged with massacre. 
Never was horde of tyrants met 
With bloodier welcome — never yet 
To patriot vengeance hath the sword 
More terrible libations poured ! 



280 LALLA ROOKH. 

All up the dreary, long ravine, 
By the red, murky glimmer seen 
Of half-quenched brands, that o'er the flood 
Lie scattered round and burn in blood. 
What ruin glares ! what carnage swims ! 
Heads, blazing turbans, quivering limbs. 
Lost swords that, dropped from many a hand. 
In that thick pool of slaughter stand ; 
Wretches who wading, half on fire 

From the tossed brands that round them fly, 
'Twixt flood and flames in shrieks expire : — 

And some who, grasped by those that die, 
Sink woundless with them, smothered o'er 
In their dead brethren's gushing gore ! 



But vainly hundreds, thousands bleed. 
Still hundreds, thousands more succeed ; 
Countless as towards some flame at night 
The North's dark insects wing their flight, 
And quench or perish in its light. 
To this terrific spot they pour — 
Till, bridged with Moslem bodies o'er. 
It bears aloft their slippery tread. 
And o'er the dying and the dead, — 
Tremendous causeway ! — on they pass. 
Then, hapless Ghebers, then, alas ! 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 281 

What hope was left for you ? for you, 

Whose yet warm pile of sacrifice 

Is smoking in their vengeful eyes : — 

Whose swords how keen, how fierce they knew, 

And burn with shame to find how few. 

Crushed down by that vast multitude, 
Some found their graves where first they stood ; 
While some with hardier struggle died. 
And still fought on by Hafed's side. 
Who, fronting to the foe, trod back 
Towards the high towers his gory track ; 
And, as a lion swept away 

By sudden swell of Jordan's pride 
From the wild covert where he lay,** 

Long battles with th' o'erwhelming tide. 
So fought he back with fierce delay, 
And ke^t both foes and fate at bay. 

But whither now .'' their track is lost. 

Their prey escaped — guide, torches gone — 

By torrent-beds and labyrinths crossed. 
The scattered crowd rush blindly on — 



a "In this thicket, upon the banks of the Jordan, several sorts of wild beasts 
are wont to harbour themselves, whose being washed out of the covert by the 
overflowings of the river, gave occasion to that allusion of Jeremiah, he shall 
come tip like a lion from the swelling of Jordan." — MamulrelVs Aleppo. 

2 A a 



283 LALLA ROOKH. 

" Curse on those tardy lights that wind," 

They panting cry, " so far behind ; 

" for a bloodhound's precious scent, 

"To track the way the Gheber went!" 

Vain wish — confusedly along 

They rush — more desperate as more wrong : 

Till, wildered by the far-off lights, 

Yet glittering up those gloomy heights, 

Their footing, mazed and lost, they miss, 

And down the darkling precipice 

Are dashed into the deep abyss ; 

Or midway hang, impaled on rocks, 

A banquet, yet alive, for flocks 

Of ravening vultures, — while the dell 

Re-echoes with each horrible yell. 



Those sounds — the last, to vengeance dear, 
That e'er shall ring in Hafed's ear, — 
Now reached him, as aloft, alone. 
Upon the steep way breathless thrown, 
He lay beside his reeking blade. 

Resigned, as if life's task were o'er. 
Its last blood-offering amply paid, 

And Iran's self could claim no more. 
One only thought, one lingering beam 
Now broke across his dizzy dream 



THE FIRE- WORSHIPPERS. 383 

Of pain and weariness — 'twas she, 

His heart's pure planet, shining yet 
Above the waste of memory, 

When all life's other lights were set. 
And never to his mind before 
Her image such enchantment wore. 
It seemed as if each thought that stained. 

Each fear that chilled their loves w^as past. 
And not one cloud of earth remained 

Between him and her radiance cast ; — 
As if to charms, before so bright, 

New grace from other worlds was given, 
And his soul saw her by the light 

Now breaking o'er itself from heaven! 

A voice spoke near him — 'twas the tone 

Of a loved friend, the only one 

Of all his warriors, left with life 

From that short night's tremendous strife. — 

"And must we then, my chief, die here ? 

"Foes round us, and the Shrine so near!" 

These words have roused the last remains 

Of life within him — " What ! not yet 
"Beyond the reach of Moslem chains !" 

The thought could make e'en Death forget 
His icy bondage^ — with a bound 
He springs, all bleeding, from the ground, 



284 LALLA ROOKH. 



And grasps his comrade's arm, now grown 

Ev'n feebler, heavier than his own, 

And up the painful pathway leads. 

Death gaining on each step he treads. 

Speed them, thou God, who heardst their vow ! 

They mount — they bleed — 0, save them now — 

The crags are red they've clambered o'er. 

The rock-weed's dripping with their gore ; — 

Thy blade too, Hafed, false at length. 

Now breaks beneath thy tottering strength ! 

Haste, haste — the voices of the Foe 

Come near and nearer from below — 

One effort more — thank Heaven ! 'tis past. 

They've gained the topmost steep at last. 

And now they touch the temple's walls. 

Now Hafed sees the Fire divine — 
When, lo ! — his weak, worn comrade falls 

Dead on the threshold of the Shrine. 
" Alas, brave soul ! too quickly fled ! 

"And must I leave thee withering here, 
" The sport of every ruffian's tread, 

"The mark for every coward's spear? 
"No, by yon altar's sacred beams !" 
He cries, and, with a strength that seems 
Not of this world, uplifts the frame 
Of the fallen Chief, and towards the flame 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 285 



Bears him along ; — with death-damp hand 

The corpse upon the pyre he lays, 
Then hghts the consecrated brand, 

And fires the pile, whose sudden blaze 
Like lightning bursts o'er Oman's Sea. — 
" Now, Freedom's God ! I come to thee,' 
The youth exclaims, and with a smile 
Of triumph vaulting on the pile, 
In that last effort, ere the fires 
Have harmed one glorious limb, expires ! 



What shriek was that on Oman's tide ? 

It came from yonder drifting bark. 
That just hath caught upon her side 
The death-light — and again is dark. 
It is the boat — ah, why delayed ? — 
That bears the wretched Moslem maid ; 
Confided to the watchful care 

Of a small veteran band, with whom 
Their generous Chieftain would not share 

The secret of his final doom. 
But hoped when Hinda, safe and free, 

Was rendered to her father's eyes. 
Their pardon, full and prompt, would be 

The ransom of so dear a prize. — 
Unconscious, thus, of Hafed's fate. 
And proud to guard their beauteous freight, 



286 LALLA ROOKH. 



Scarce had they cleared the surfy waves 
That foam around those frightful caves, 
When the cursed war-whoops, known so well. 
Came echoing from the distant dell — 
Sudden each oar, upheld and still. 

Hung dripping o'er the vessel's side, 
And, driving at the current's will. 

They rocked along the whispering tide ; 
While every eye, in mute dismay, 

Was toward that fatal mountain turned, 
Where the dim altar's quivering ray 

As yet all lone and -tranquil burned. 

! 'tis not, HiNDA, in the power 

Of Fancy's most terrific touch 
To paint thy pangs in that dread hour — 

Thy silent agony — 'twas such 
As those who feel could paint too well, 
But none e'er felt and lived to tell ! 
'Twas not alone the dreary state 
Of a lorn spirit, crushed by fate, 
When, though no more remains to dread, 

The panic chill .will not depart ; — 
When, though the inmate Hope be dead, 

Her ghost still haunts the mouldering heart ' 
No — pleasures, hopes, affections gone, 
The wretch may bear, and yet live on. 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 287 



Like things, within the cold rock found 

Alive, when all's congealed around. 

But tliere's a blank repose in this, 

A calm stagnation, that were bliss 

To the keen, burning, harrowing pain, 

>iOW felt through all thy breast and brain ; — 

That spasm of terror, mute, intense. 

That breathless, agonized suspense. 

From whose hot throb, whose deadly aching, 

The heart hath no relief but breaking ! 

Calm is the wave — heaven's brilliant lights 

Reflected dance beneath the prow ; — 
Time was when, on such lovely nights. 

She who is there, so desolate now. 
Could sit all cheerful, though alone. 

And ask no happier joy than seeing 
That starlight o'er the waters thrown — 
No joy but that, to make her bless'd. 

And the fresh, buoyant sense of Being, 
Which bounds in youth's yet careless breast,- 
Itself a star, not borrowing light, 
But in its own glad essence bright. 
How different now ! — but, hark, again 
The yell of havoc rings — brave men ! 
In vain, with beating hearts, ye stand 
On the bark's edge — in vain each hand 



•^88 LALLA ROOKH. 



Half draws the falchion from its sheath ; 

All's o'er — in rust your blades may lie: — 
He, at whose word they've scattered death, 

Ev'n now, this night, himself must die ! 
Well may ye look to yon dim tower, 

And ask, and wondering guess what means 
The battle-cry at this dead hour — 

Ah ! she could tell you — she, who leans 
Unheeded there, pale, sunk, aghast, 
With brow against the dew- cold mast ; — 

Too well she knows — her more than life, 
Her soul's first idol and its last, 

Lies bleeding in that murderous strife. 
But see — what moves upon the height? 
Some signal ! — 'tis a torch's light. 

What bodes its sohtary glare ? 
In gasping silence toward the Shrine 
All eyes are turned — thine, Hinda, thine 

Fix their last, fading life-beams there. 
'Twas but a moment — fierce and high 
The death-pile blazed into the sky. 
And far away, o'er rock and flood. 

Its melancholy radiance sent ; 
W^hile Hafed, like a vision, stood 
Revealed before the burning pyre, 
Tall, shadowy, like a Spirit of Fire 

Shrined in its own orand element ! 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 289 

" 'Tis he !" — the shuddering maid exclaims, — 
But, while she speaks, he's seen no more ; 

High burst in air the funeral flames, 
And Iran's hopes and hers are o'er! 

One wild, heart-broken shriek she gave ; 

Then sprung, as if to reach that blaze. 

Where still she fixed her dying gaze. 
And, gazing, sunk into the wave, — 

Deep, deep, where never care or pain 

Shall reach her innocent heait again ! 



Farewell — farewell to thee, Araby's daughter ! 

(Thus warbled a Peri beneath the dark sea,) 
No pearl ever lay, under Oman's green water, 

More pure in its shell than thy Spirit in thee. 

! fair as the sea-flower close to thee growing. 
How light was thy heart till Love's witchery came. 

Like the wind of the south ^ o'er a summer lute blowing. 
And hushed all its music, and vsdthered its frame ! 

But long, upon Araby's green, sunny highlands. 
Shall maids and their lovers remember the doom 

a « Tliis wind (the Samoor) so softens the strings of lutes, that they can 
never be tuned while it lasts." — Stephen's Persia. 

2 B 



290 LALLA ROOKH. 

Of her, who lies sleeping among the Pearl Islands. 
With naught but the sea-star'^ to light up her tomb. 

And still, when the merry date-season is burning," 
And calls to the palm-groves the young and the old, 

The happiest there, from their pastime returning 
At sunset, will weep when thy story is told. 

The young village-maid, when with flowers she dresses 
Her dark, flowing hair for some festival day. 

Will think of thy fate till, neglecting her tresses. 
She mournfully turns from the mirror away. 

Nor shall Iran, beloved of her Hero ! forget thee — 
Though tyrants watch over her tears as they start, 

Close, close by the side of that Hero she'll set thee. 
Embalmed in the innermost shrine of her heart. 

Farewell — be it ours to embellish thy pillow 

With every thing beauteous that grows in the deep ; 

Each flower of the rock and each gem of the billow 
Shall sweeten thy bed and illumine thy sleep. 



3- " One of the greatest curiosities found in the Persian Gulf is a fish wnich 
the English call Star-fish. It is circular, and at night very luminous, resembling 
the full moon surrounded by rays." — Mirza Abu Taleb. 

^ For a description of the merriment of the date-time, of their work, their 
dances, and their return home from the palm groves at the end of autumn with 
the fruits, see Kempfer Amosnitat. Exot. 



THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 291 

Around thee shall glisten the loveliest amber 
That ever the sorrowing sea-bird has wept ; ^ 

With many a shell, in whose hollow- wreathed chamber 
We, Peris of Ocean, by moonlight have slept. 

We'll dive where the gardens of coral lie darkling, 
And plant all the rosiest stems at thy head ; 

We'll seek where the sands of the Caspian* are sparkling. 
And gather their gold to strew over thy bed. 

Farewell — farewell — until Pity's sweet fountain 
Is lost in the hearts of the fair and the brave, 

They'll weep for the Chieftain who died on that mountain, 
They'll weep for the Maiden who sleeps in this wave. 



a oome naturalists have imagined that amber is a concretion ot the tears of 
birds. — See Trevoux, Chambers. 

i» '• 'I'he bay itleselarke, which is otherwise called the Golden Bay, the sand 
whereot snincs as fire." — Struy. 



292 L A L L A R O O K H. 



The singular placidity with which Fadladeen had 
listened, during the latter part of this obnoxious story, 
surprised the Princess and Feramorz exceedingly ; and 
even inclined towards him the hearts of these unsuspicious 
young persons, who little knew the source of a complacency 
so marvellous. The truth was, he had been organizing, for 
the last few days, a most notable plan of persecution against 
the Poet, in consequence of some passages that had fallen 
from him on the second evening of recital, — which appeared 
to this worthy Chamberlain to contain language and princi- 
ples, for which nothing short of the summary criticism of the 
Chabuk^ would be advisable. It was his intention, therefore, 
immediately on their arrival at Cashmere, to give information 
to the King of Bucharia of the very dangerous sentiments 
of his minstrel ; and if, unfortunately, that monarch did not 
act with suitable vigour on the occasion, (that is, if he did 
not give the Chabuk to Feramorz, and a place to Fadla- 
deen,) there would be an end, he feared, of all legitimate 
government in Bucharia. He could not help, however, 
auguring better both for himself and the cause of potentates 
in general ; and it was the pleasure arising from these mingled 

a " The application of whips or rods." — Dubois. 



LALLA ROOKH. 293 

anticipations that diffused such unusual satisfaction through 
his features, and made his eyes shine out, like poppies of the 
desert, over the wide and lifeless wilderness of that counte- 
nance. 

Having decided upon the poet's chastisement in this 
manner, he thought it but humanity to spare him the minor 
tortures of criticism. Accordingly, when they assembled the 
following evening in the pavilion, and Lalla Rookh was 
expecting to see all the beauties of her bard melt away, one 
by one, in the acidity of criticism, like pearls in the cup 
of the Egyptian queen, — he agreeably disappointed her by 
merely saying, with an ironical smile, that the merits of such 
a poem deserved to be tried at a much higher tribunal ; and 
then suddenly passed off into a panegyric upon all Mussulman 
sovereigns, more particularly his august and Imperial master, 
Aurungzebe, — the wisest and best of the descendants of 
Timur, — who, among other great things he had done for 
mankind, had given to him, Fadladeen, the very profitable 
posts of Betel-carrier, and Taster of Sherbets to the Emperor, 
Chief Holder of the Girdle of Beautiful Forms,'' and Grand 
Nazir, or Chamberlain of the Haram. 



a Kempfer mentions such an officer among the attendants of the King of 
Persia, and calls him " fonnce corporis estimator." His business was, at stated 
periods, to measure the ladies of the Haram liy a sort of regulation-girdle, whose 
limits it was not thought graceful to exceed. If any of them outgrew this 
standard of shape, they were reduced by abstinence till they came within proper 
bounds. 



394 LALLA ROOKH. 

They were now not far from that Forbidden River,* 
beyond which no pure Hindoo can pass ; and were reposing 
for a time in the rich valley of Hussun Abdaul, which had 
always been a favourite resting-place of the Emperors in their 
annual migrations to Cashmere. Here often had the Light 
of the Faith, Jehanguire, been known to wander with his 
beloved and beautiful Nourmahal ; and here would Lalla 
RooKH have been happy to remain for ever, giving up the 
throne of Bucharia and the world, for Feramorz and love in 
this sweet, lonely valley. But the time was now fast 
approaching when she must see him no longer, — or, what 
was still worse, behold him with eyes whose every look 
belonged to another ; and there was a melancholy precious- 
ness in these last moments, which made her heart cling to 
them as it would to life. During the latter part of the 
journey, indeed, she had sunk into a deep sadness, from 
which nothing but the presence of the young minstrel could 
awake her. Like those lamps in tombs, which only light up 
when the air is admitted, it was only at his approach that her 
eyes became smiling and animated. But here, in this dear 
valley, every moment appeared an age of pleasure ; she saw 
him all day, and was, therefore, all day happy, — resembling. 



a The Attock. 

" Akbar on his way ordered a fort to be built upon the Nilab, which he 
called Attock, which means, in the Indian language, Forbidden ; for, by the 
superstition of the Hindoos, it was held unlawful to cross that river." — Doiv's 
Hindostan. 



L A L L A R O O K H: 295 

she often thought, that people of Zinge,'' who attribute the 
unfading cheerfulness they enjoy to one genial star that rises 
nightly over their heads.'' 



The whole party, indeed, seemed in their liveliest 
mood during the few days they passed in this delightful 
solitude. The young attendants of the Princess, who 
were here allowed a much freer range than they could 
safely be indulged with in a less sequestered place, ran 
wild among the gardens, and bounded through the mea- 
dows, lightly as young roes over the aromatic plains of 
Tibet; while Fadladeen, in addition to the spiritual com- 
fort derived by him from a pilgrimage to the tomb of the 
Saint from whom the valley is named, had also opportu- 
nities of indulging, in a small way, his taste for victims, 
by putting to death some hundreds of those unfortunate 



a "The inhabitants of this country (Zinge) are never afflicted with sadness 
or melancholy ; on this subject the Sheikh Abw-al-Khdr-Azhari has the follow- 
ing distich : — 

« ' Who is the man without care or sorrow (tell) that » may rub my hand 
to him. 

« ' (Behold) the Zingians, without care or sorrow, froUcksome with tipsmess 
and mirth.' 

" The philosophers have discovered that the cause of this cheerfulness pro- 
ceeds from the influence of the star Soheil or Canopus, which rises over them 
every night." — Extract from a Geographical Persian Mnnuscript called Heft 
Jlklim, or the Seve7i Climates, translated by W. Ouscley, Esq. 

'' The star Soheil, or Canopus. 



296 L A I, L A R O O K H. 

little lizards,'' which all pious Mussulmans make it a point 
to kill, — taking for granted, that the manner in which the 
creature hangs its head is meant as a mimicry of the atti- 
tude in which the Faitliful say their prayers. 

About two miles from Hussun Abdaul were those 
Royal Gardens,^ which had grown beautiful under the 
care of so many lovely eyes, and were beautiful still, 
though those eyes could see them no longer. This place, 
with its flowers and its holy silence, interrupted only by 
the dipping of the wings of birds in its marble basins 
filled with the pure water of those hills, was to Lalla 
RooKH all that her heart could fancy of fragrance, cool- 
ness, and almost heavenly tranquillity. As the Prophet 
said of Damascus, "It was too delicious ;'"" — and here. 



a « The lizard Stellio. The Arabs call it Hardun. The Turks kill it, for 
they imagine that by declining the head it mimics them when- they say their 
prayers." — Hasselqtiist. 

i) For these particulars respecting Hussun Abdaul I am indebted to the very 
interesting Introduction of Mr. Elphinstone's work upon Caubul. 

c "As you enter at that Bazar, without the gate of Damascus, you see the 
Green Mosque, so called because it hath a steeple faced with green glazed 
bricks, which render it very resplendent ; it is covered at top with a paviUon 
of the same stuff. The Turks say tliis mosque was made in that place, be- 
cause Mahomet, being come so far, would not enter the town, saying it 
was too delicious." — Thcvcnot. This reminds one of the following pretty 
passage in Isaac Walton: — "When I sat last on this primrose bank, and 
looked down these meadows, I thought of them as Charles the Emperor did 
of the city of Florence, 'that they were too pleasant to be looked on, but 
only on holidays.' " 



LALLA ROOKH. 297 

in listening to the sweet voice of Feramorz, or reading 
in his eyes what yet he never dared to tell her, the most 
exquisite moments of her whole life were passed. One 
evening, when they haa been talking of the Sultana 
Nourmahal, the Light of the Haram,^ who had so often 
wandered among these flowers, and fed with her own 
hands, in those marble basins, the small, shining fishes of 
which she was so fond," — the youth, in order to delay the 
moment of separation, proposed to recite a short story, or 
rather rhapsody, of which this adored Sultana was the 
heroine. It related, he said, to the reconcilement of a 
sort of lovers' quarrel which took place between her and 
the Emperor during a Feast of Roses at Cashmere ; and 
would remind the Princess of that difference between 
Haroun-al-Raschid and his fair mistress Marida,*' which 
w^as so happily made up by the soft strains of the musi- 



a Nourmahal signifies Liglit of the Haram. She was afterwards called 
Nourjehan, or the Light of the World. 

^ See note, p. 240, v 

" " Haroun Al Raschid, cinquieme Khalife des Abassides, s'etant un jour 
brouille avec une de ses maitresses nominee Maridah, qu'il aimoit cependant 
jusqu'a. I'exces, et cette m^sintelligence ayant deja duree quelque tems com- 
men9a a, s'ennuyer. Giafar Barmaki, son favori, qui s'en appercut, commanda 
a Abbas ben Ahnaf, excellent poete de ce tems la, de composer quclques 
vers sur le sujet de cette brouillerie. Ce poete executa I'ordre de Giafar, 
qui fit chanter ces vers par Moussali en presence du Khalife, et ce prince fut 
tellement touche de la tendresse des vers du poete et de la douceur de la 
voix du musicien qu'il alia aussi-tot trouver Maridah, et fit sa paix avec elle." 
—D'Herbelot. 



298 LALLA ROOKH. 

cian, Moussali. As the story was chiefly to be told in 
song, and Feramorz had unluckily forgotten his own lute 
in the valley, he borrowed the vina of Lalla Rookh's 
little Persian slave, and thus began: — 



THE LIGHT OF THE HAUAM. 



Who has not heard of the vale of Cashmere, 
With its roses the brightest that earth ever gave,'' 

Its temples, and grottoes, and fountains as clear 
As the love-lighted eyes that hang over their wave ? 

! to see it at sunset, — when warm o'er the Lake 
Its splendour at parting a summer eve throws, 

Like a bride, full of blushes, when lingering to take 
A last look of her mirror at night ere she goes ! — 

When the shrines through the foliage are gleaming half 
shown. 

And each hallows the hour by some rites of its own. 

Here the music of prayer from a minaret swells. 

Here the Magian his urn, full of perfume, is swinging, 



a « The rose of Kashmire, for its brilliancy and delicacy of odour, has long 
been proverbial in the East." — Forster, 



300 LALLA ROOKH 

And here, at the altar, a zone of sweet bells 

Round the waist of some fair Indian dancer is ringing. 
Or to see it by moonlight, — when mellowly shines 
The light o'er its palaces, gardens, and shrines ; 
When the waterfalls gleam, like a quick fall of stars, 
And the nightingale's hymn from the Isle of Chenars 
Is broken by laughs and light echoes of feet 
From the cool shining walks where the young people 

meet. — 
Or at morn, when the magic of daylight awakes 
A new wonder each minute, as slowly it breaks. 
Hills, cupolas, fountains, called forth every one 
Out of darkness, as if but just born of the Sun. 
When the Spirit of Fragrance is up with the day. 
From his Haram of night-flowers stealing away ; 
And the wind, full of wantonness, wooes like a lover 
The young aspen-trees," till they tremble all over. 
When the East is as warm as the light of first hopes, 

And Day, with, his banner of radiance unfurled, 

Shines in through the mountainous portal "^ that opes, 

SubUme, from that Valley of bliss to the world ! 



^ " Tied round her waist the zone of bells, that sounded with ravishing 
melody." — Song of Jayadeva. 

i> "The Uttle isles in the Lake of Cachemire are set with arbours and large- 
leavea aspen-trees, slender and tall." — Bender, 

c « The Tuckt Suliman, the name bestowed by the Mahometans on this 
hill, forms one side of a grand portal to the Lake." — Forster, 



THE LIGHT OF THE H A R A M. 301 

But never yet, by night or day, 
In dew of spring or summer's ray, 
Did the sweet Valley shine so gay 
As now it shines — all love and lio-ht. 
Visions by day and feasts by night ! 
A happier smile illumes each brow. 

With quicker spread each heart uncloses, 
And all is ecstasy, — for now 

The Valley holds its Feast of Roses ;" 
The joyous time, when pleasures pour 
Profusely round, and, in their shower, 
Hearts open, like the Season's Rose, — 

The Floweret of a hundred leaves," 
Expanding while the dew-fall flows, 

And every leaf its balm receives. 

'Twas when the hour of evening came 

Upon the Lake, serene and cool. 
When Day had hid his sultry flame 

Behind the palms of Baramoule,'' 
When maids began to lift their heads. 
Refreshed, from their embroidered beds, 



a "The Feast of Roses- continues the whole time of their remauiing in 
bloom." — See Pietro de la Valle. 

*> « Gul sad berk, the Rose of a hundred leaves. I believe a particular 
species." — Ouscley. 

• Seniicr. 

2C 



303 L A L L A R K H. 

Where they had slept the sun away, 
And waked to moonhght and to play. 
All were abroad — the busiest hive 
On Bela's^ hills is less alive, 
When saffron-beds are full in flower, 
Than looked the Valley in that hour. 
A thousand restless torches played 
Through every grove and island shade ; 
A thousand sparkling lamps were set 
On every dome and minaret ; 
And fields and pathways, far and near. 
Were lighted by a blaze so clear. 
That you could see, in wandering round, 
The smallest rose-leaf on the ground. 
Yet did the maids and matrons leave 
Their veils at home, that brllhant eve ; 
And there were glancing eyes about. 
And cheeks, that would not dare shine out 
In open day, but thought they might 
Look lovely then, because 'twas night. 
And all were free, and wandering. 

And all exclaimed to all they met, 
That never did the summer bring 

So gay a Feast of Roses yet ; — 



a A place mentioned in the Toozek Jehangeery, or Memoirs of Jehanguire, 
where there is an account of the beds of saffron-flowers about Cashmere. 



THE LIGHT OF THE HARAM. 303 

The moon had never shed a hght 

So clear as that which blessed them there ; 

The roses ne'er shone half so bright, 
Nor they themselves looked half so fair. 

And what a wilderness of flowers ' 

It seemed as though from all the bowers 

And fairest fields of all the year, 

The mingled spoil were scattered here. 

The Lake, too, like a garden breathes, 

With the rich buds that o'er it lie, — 
As if a shower of fairy wreaths 

Had fallen upon it from the sky ! 
And then the sounds of joy, — the beat 
Of tabors and of dancing. feet ; 
The minaret-crier's chant of glee 
Sung from his lighted gallery,^ 
And answered by a ziraleet 
From neighbouring Haram, wild and sweet ; — 
The merry laughter, echoing 
From gardens, where the silken swing" 



a « It is the custom among the women to employ the Maazeen to chant from 
the gallery of the nearest minaret, which on that occasion is illuminated, and 
the women assembled at the house respond at intervals with a ziraleet or joyous 
chorus.' ' — Russell. 

b « The swing is a favourite pastime in the East, as promoting a circulation 
of air, extremely refreshing in those sultry climates." — Richardson. 

"The swings are adorned with festoons. This pastime is accompanied 




304 LALLA ROOKH. 

Wafts some delighted girl above 

The top leaves of the orange-grove ; 

Or, from those infant groups at play 

Among the tents a that line the way, 

Flinging, unawed by slave or mother, 

Handfuls of roses at each other. — 
Then, the sounds from the Lake, — the low whispering in boatSj 
As they shoot through the moonlight ; — the dipping of oars, 
And the wild, airy warbling that every where floats, 

Through the groves, round the islands, as if all the shores. 

Like those of Kathay, uttered music, and gave 

An answer in song to the kiss of each wave.^ 

But the gentlest of all are those sounds full of feeling, 

That soft from the lute of some lover are stealing, — 

Some lover, who knows all the heart-touching power 

Of a lute and a sigh in this magical hour. 



with music of voices and of instruments, hired by the masters of the swings." — 
Thevenot. 

a « At the keeping of tlie Feast of Roses we beheld an infinite number of 
tents pitched, with such a crowd of men, women, boys, and girls, with music, 
dances," &c. &c. — Herbert. 

15 " An old commentator of the Chou-King says, the ancients having re- 
marked that a current of water made some of the stones near its banks send 
forth a sound, they detached some of them, and being charmed with the de- 
lightful sound they emitted, constructed King or musical instruments of them." 
—G-rosier, 

This miraculous quality has been attributed also to the shore of Attica. 
« Hujus httus, ait Capella, concentum musicum illisis terrae undis reddere, quod 
propter tantam eruditionis vim puto dictum." — Ludov. Vivcs, in Augusiin. de 
Civitat. Dei, lib. xviii. c. 8. 



THE LIGHT OF THE HARAM. 305 

! best of delights, as it everywhere is, 

To be near the loved One, what a rapture is his 

Who in moonlight and music thus sweetly may glide 

O'er the Lake of Cashmere, with that One by his side ! 

If woman can make the worst wilderness dear, 

Think, think what a Heaven she must make of Cashmere ! 

So felt the magnificent Son of Acbar,'' 
When from power and pomp and the trophies of war 
He flew to that Valley, forgetting them all. 
With the Light of the Haram, his young Nourmahal. 
When free and uncrowned as the Conqueror roved 
By the banks of that Lake, with his only beloved. 
He saw, in the wreaths she would playfully snatch 
From the hedges, a glory his crown could not match. 
And preferred in his heart the least ringlet that curled 
Down her exquisite neck to the throne of the world. 

There's a beauty, for ever unchangingly bright. 
Like the long, sunny lapse of a summer- day's light, 
Shining on, shining on, by no shadow made tender. 
Till Love falls asleep in its sameness of splendour. 
This was not the beauty — 0, nothing like this, 
That to young Nourmahal gave such magic of bliss ! 



a Jehanguire was tlie son of the Great Acbar. 
2 c 2 



306 LALLAROOKH. 

But that loveliness, ever in motion, which plays 

Like the light upon autumn's soft, shadowy days, 

Now here and now there, giving warmth as it flies 

From the lip to the cheek, from the cheek to the eyes ; 

Now melting in mist and now breaking in gleams. 

Like the glimpses a saint hath of Heaven in his dreams. 

When pensive, it seemed as if that very grace. 

That charm of all others, was born with her face ! 

And when angry, — for ev'n in the tranquillest climes 

Light breezes will ruffle the blossoms sometimes, — 

The short, passing anger but seemed to awaken 

New beauty, like flowers that are sweetest when shaken. 

If tenderness touched her, the dark of her eye 

At once took a darker, a heavenlier dye, 

From the depth of whose shadow, like holy revealings 

From innermost shrines, came the light of her feelings. 

Then her mirth — ! 'twas sportive as ever took wing 

From the heart with a burst, like the wild-bird in spring ; 

Illumed by a wit that would fascinate sages. 

Yet playful as Peris just loosed from their cages.* 

While her laugh, full of life, without any control 

But the sweet one of gracefulness, rung from her soul ; 



a In the wars of the Dives with the Peris, whenever the former took the 
latter prisoners, " they shut them up in iron cages, and hung them on the 
higliest trees. Here tliey were visited by their companions, who brought them 
the choicest odours." — Ricliardsov. 



THE LIGHT OF THE HARAM. 307 

And where it most sparkled no glance could discover, 

In lip, cheek, or eyes, for she brightened all over, — 

Like any fair lake that the breeze is upon, 

When it breaks into dimples and laughs in the sun. 

Such, such were the peerless enchantments, that gave 

NouRMAHAL the proud Lord of the East for her slave : 

And though bright was his Haram, — a living parterre 

Of the flowers'' of this planet — though treasures were there, 

For which Soliman's self might have given all the store. 

That the navy from Ophir e'er wdnged to his shore. 

Yet dim before her were the smiles of them all, 

And the Light of his Haram was young Nourmahal ! 

But where is she now, this night of joy. 

When bliss is every heart's employ ? — 

When all around her is so bright. 

So like the visions of a trance. 

That one might think, who came by chance 

Into the vale this happy night, 

He saw that City of Delight,^ 

In Fairy-land, whose streets and towers 

Are made of gems and light and flowers ! 

Where is the loved Sultana ? where. 

When mirth brings out the young and fair. 



a In the Malay language the same word signifies women and flowers. 
•> The capital of Shadukiam. See note, p. 174. 



308 LALLA ROOKH. 

Does she, the fairest, hide her brow. 
In melancholy stillness now ? 

Alas ! — how light a cause may move 

Dissension between hearts that love ! 

Hearts that the world in vain had tried, 

And sorrow but more closely tied ; 

That stood the storm, when waves were rough, 

Yet in a sunny hour fall off. 

Like ships that have gone down at sea, 

When heaven was all tranquillity ! 

A something, light as air — a look, 

A word unkind or wrongly taken — • 
! love, that tempests never shook, 

A breath, a touch like this hath shaken. 
And ruder words will soon rush in 
To spread the breach that words begin ; 
And eyes forget the gentle ray 
They wore in courtship's smiling day, 
And voices lose the tone that shed 
A tenderness round all they said ; 
TUl fast declining, one by one. 
The sweetnesses of love are gone. 
And hearts, so lately mingled, seem 
Like broken clouds, — or like the stream. 
That smiling left the mountain's brow. 

As thouoh its waters ne'er could sever. 



THE LIGHT OF THE HARAM. 309 

Yetj ere it reach the plain below, 
Breaks into floods, that part for ever. 

0, you that have the charge of Love, 

Keep him in rosy bondage bound, 
As in the Fields of Bliss above 

He sits, with flowerets fettered round ; ^ — • 
Loose not a tie that round him clings. 
Nor ever let him use his wings ; 
For ev'n an hour, a minute's flight 
Will rob the plumes of half their light. 
Like that celestial bird, — whose nest 

Is found beneath far Eastern skies, — 
Whose wings, though radiant when at rest. 

Lose all their glory when he flies ! '' 

Some difference, of this dangerous kind, — 
By which, though light, the links. that bind 
The fondest hearts may soon be riven ; 
Some shadow in Love's summer heaven, 
Which, though a fleecy speck at first. 
May yet in awful thunder burst ; — 

a See the representation of the Eastern Cupid, pinioned closely round with 
wreaths of flowers, in Picarfs Ceremonies Religieuses. 

* « Among the birds of Tonquin is a species of goldfinch, which sings so 
melodiously that it is called the Celestial Bird. Its wings, when it is perched, 
appear variegated with beautiful colours, but when it flies tliey lose all their 
splendour." — Grosicr, 



310 LALLA ROOKH. 

Such cloud it is, that now hangs over 

The heart of the Imperial Lover, 

And far hath banished from his sight 

His NouRMAHAL, his Haram's Light ! 

Hence is it, on this happy night. 

When Pleasure through the fields and groves 

Has let loose all her world of loves, 

And every heart has found its own, 

He wanders, joyless and alone. 

And weary as that bird of Thrace, 

Whose pinion knows no resting-place.^ 



In vain the loveliest cheeks and eyes 
This Eden of the Earth supplies 

Come crowding round — the cheeks are pale. 
The eyes are dim : — though rich the spot 
With every flower this earth has got. 

What is it to the nightingale, 
If there his darling rose is not ? " 
In vain the Valley's smiling throng 
Worship him, as he moves along ; 



a « As these birds on the Bosphorus are never known to rest, they are called 
by the French < les ames damnees.' " — Dalloway. 

b « You may place a hundred handfuls of fragrant herbs and flowers before 
the iiightingale, yet he wishes not, in his constant heart, for more than the sweet 
breath of his beloved rose." — Jami. 



THE LIGHT OF TH E H ARAM. 311 

He heeds them not — one smile of hers 
Is worth a world of worshippers. 
They but the Star's adorers are, 
She is the Heaven that lights the Star ! 



Hence it is, too, that Nourmahal, 
Amid the luxuries of this hour, 
Far from the joyous festival, 

Sits in her own sequestered bower, 
With no one near, to soothe or aid. 
But that inspired and wondrous maid, 
Namouna, the Enchantress : — one, 
O'er whom his race the golden sun 
For unremembered years has run, 
Yet never saw her blooming brow 
Younger or fairer than 'tis now. 
Nay, rather, — as the west wind's sigh 
Freshens the flower it passes by. 
Time's wing but seemed, in stealing o'er. 
To leave her lovelier than before. 
Yet on her smiles a sadness hung. 
And when, as oft, she spoke or sung 
Of other worlds, there came a light 
From her dark eyes so strangely bright, 
That all believed nor man nor earth 
Were conscious of Namouna's birth ' 



312 LALLA ROOKH. 

All spells and talismans she knew. 

From the great Mantra,^ which around 
The Air's sublimer Spirits drew, 

To the gold gems^ of Afric, bound 
Upon the wandering Arab's arm, 
To keep him from the Siltim's'' harm. 
And she had pledged her powerful art, — 
Pledged it with all the zeal and heart 
Of one who knew, though high her sphere, 
What 'twas to lose a love so dear, — 
To find some spell that should recall 
Her Selim's ^ smile to Nourmahal ! 

'Twas midnight — through the lattice, wreathed 

With woodbine, many a perfume breathed 

From plants that wake when others sleep, 

From timid jasmine buds, that keep 

Their odour to themselves all day, 

But when the sunlight dies away. 

Let the delicious secret out 

To every breeze that roams about ; — 



a « He is said to have found the great Mantra, spell or talisman, through 
which he ruled over the elements and spirits of all denominations." — Wilford. 

^ "The gold jewels of Jinnie, which are called by the Arabs El Herrez, 
from the supposed charm they contain." — Jackson. 

c « A demon, supposed to haunt woods, &c., in a human shape." — 
Richardson. 

^ The name of Jehanguire before his accession to the throne. 



THE LIGHT OF THE H A R A M. 313 



When thus Namouna : — " 'Tis the hour 
" That scatters spells on herb and flower, 
" And garlands might be gathered now, 
" That, twined around the sleeper's brow, 
" Would make him dream of such delights, 
" Such miracles and dazzling sights, 
" As Genii of the Sun behold, 
" At evening, from their tents of gold 
" Upon th' horizon — where they play 
" Till twilight comes, and, ray by ray, 
" Their sunny mansions melt away. ■ 
"Now, too, a chaplet might be wreathed 
" Of buds o'er which the moon has breathed, 
" Which worn by her, whose love has strayed, 

" Might bring some Peri from the skies, 
" Some sprite, whose very soul is made 

" Of flowerets' breaths and lovers' sighs, 

" And who might tell " 

"For me, for me," 
Cried Nourmahal impatiently, — 
" ! twine that wreath for me to-night." 
1 hen, rapidly, with foot as light 
As the young musk-roe's, out she flew. 
To cull each shining leaf that grew 
Beneath the moonlight's hallowing beams, 
For this enchanted Wreath of Dreams. 

2 D 



314 LALLA ROOKH. 



Anemones and Seas of Gold,^ 

And new-blown lilies of the river, 
And those sweet flowerets, that unfold 

Their buds on Camadeva's quiver;^ 
The tube-rose, with her silvery light. 

That in the Gardens of Malay 
Is called the Mistress of the Night," 
So like a bride, scented and bright, 

She comes out when the sun's away ; 
Amaranths, such as crown the maids 
That wander through Zamara's shades f — 
And the white moon-flower, as it shows. 
On Serendib's high crags, to those 
Who near the isle at evening sail, 
Scenting her clove-trees in the gale ; 
In short, all flowerets and all plants. 

From the Divine Amrita tree,^ 



a « Hemasagara, or the Sea of Gold, with flowers of the brightest gold 
colour," — Sir W. Jones. 

b " This tree (the Nagacesara) is one of the most delightful on earth, and 
the deUcious odour of its blossoms justly gives them a place in the quiver of 
Camadeva, or the God of Love." — Id. 

c "The Malayans style the tube-rose (Polianthes tuberosa) Sandal Malam, 
or the Mistress of the Night." — Pennant. 

d The people of the Batta country in Sumatra, (of which Zamara is one 
of the ancient names,) " when not engaged in war, lead an idle, inactive life, 
passing the day in playing on a kind of flute, crowned with garlands of flowers, 
among which the globe-amaranthus, a native of the country, mostly prevails." — 
Marsden. 

e "The largest and richest sort (of the Jambu or rose-apple) is called Am- 



THE LIGHT OF THE HARAM. 315 

That blesses heaven's inhabitants 

With fruits of immortality, 
Down to the basil tuft,^ that waves 
Its fragrant blossom over graves, 

And to the humble rosemary; 
Whose sweets so thanklessly are shed 
To scent the desert^ and the dead — 
All in that garden bloom, and all 
Are gathered by young Nourmahal, 
Who heaps her baskets with the flowers 

And leaves, till they can hold no more ; 
Then to Namouna flies, and showers 

Upon her lap the shining store. 
With what delight th' Enchantress views 
So many buds, bathed with the dews 
And beams of that blessed hour ! — her glance 

Spoke something, past all mortal pleasures. 
As, in a kind of holy trance. 

She hung above those fragrant treasures, 



rita, or immortal, and the mythologists of Tibet apply the same word to a celes- 
tial tree, bearmg ambrosial fruit." — Sir W. Jones, 

a Sweet basil, called Rayhan in Persia, and generally found in churchyards. 

" The women in Egypt go, at least two days in the week, to pray and weep 
at the sepulchres of the dead ; and the custom then is to throw upon the tombs 
a sort of herb, which the Arabs call nahn, and which is our sweet basil." — 
Maillet, Lett. 10. 

^ « In the Great Desert are found many stalks of lavender and rosemary." — 
Asiat. Res. 



316 L ALL A ROOKH. 



Bending to drink their balmy airs, 
As if she mixed her soul with theirs. 
And 'twas, indeed, the perfume shed 
From flowers and scented flame, that fed 
Her charmed life — for none had e'er 
Beheld her taste of mortal fare, 
Nor ever in aught earthly dip, 
But the morn's dew, her roseate lip. 
Filled with the cool, inspiring smell, 
Th' Enchantress now begins her spell. 
Thus singing as she winds and weaves. 
In mystic form the glittering leaves : — 



I know where the winged visions dwell 

That around the night-bed play ; 
I know each herb and floweret's bell. 
Where they hide their wings by day. 
Then hasten we, maid. 
To twine our braid ; 
To-morrow the dreams and flowers will fade. 

The image of love, that nightly flies 

To visit the bashful maid, 
Steals from the jasmine flower, that sighs 

Its soul, like her, in the shade. 



THE LIGHT OF THE HARAM. 317 

The dream of a future, happier hour, 

That alights on misery's brow. 
Springs out of the silvery almond flower, 
That blooms on a leafless bough. ^ 
Then hasten we, maid. 
To twine our braid ; 
To-morrow the dreams and flowers will fade. 

The visions, that oft to worldly eyes 

The glitter of mines unfold. 
Inhabit the mountain-herb,'' that dyes 

The tooth of the fawn like gold. 
The phantom shapes — touch not them — 

That appal the murderer's sight. 
Lurk in the fleshy mandrake's stem. 

That shrieks, when plucked at night ! 



a "The almond-tree, with white flowers, blossoms on the bare branches." — 
Hnssclqidst. 

^ An herb on Mount Libanus, which is said to communicate a yellow, golden 
hue to the teeth of the goats and other animals that graze upon it. 

Niebuhr thinks this may be the herb which the Eastern alchymists look to 
as a means of making gold. « Most of those alchymical enthusiasts think them- 
selves sure of success, if they could but find out the herb, which gilds the teeth 
and gives a yellow colour to the flesh of the sheep that cat it. Even the oil of 
this plant must be of a golden colour. It is called Haschischat cd dab." 

Father Jerom Dandini, however, asserts that the teeth of the goats at Mount 
Libanus are of a silver colour ; and adds, « this confirms to me that which I ob- 
served in Candia ; to wit, that the animals that live on Mount Ida eat a certain 
herb, which renders their teeth of a golden colour ; which, according to my 
judgment, cannot otherwise proceed than from the mines which are under 
ground." — Duridiiri, Voyagi to Mount Libanus, 

2 p 2 



318 LALLA ROOKH 

Then hasten we, maid, 
To twine our braid ; 
To-morrow the dreams and flowers will fade. 



The dream of the injured, patient mind, 

That smiles at the wrongs of men, 
Is found in the bruised and wounded rind 
Of the cinnamon, sweetest then. 
Then hasten we, maid. 
To twine our braid ; 
To-morrow the dreams and flowers will fade. 



No sooner was the flowery crown 
Placed on her head, than sleep came down, 
Gently as nights of summer fall, 
Upon the hds of Nourmahal ; — 
And, suddenly, a tuneful breeze. 
As full of small, rich harmonies 
As ever wind, that o'er the tents 
Of AzAB ^ blew, was full of scents. 
Steals on her ear, and floats and swells, 
Like the first air of morning creeping 

a The myrrh country. 



THE LIGHT OF THE HARAM. 319 

Into those wreathy, Red-Sea shells, 

Where Love himself, of old, lay sleeping ; * 

And now a Spirit formed, 'twould seem 
Of music and of light, — so fair- 

So brilliantly his features beam, 
And such a sound is in the air 

Of sweetness when he waves his wings, — 

Hovers around her, and thus sings : — 



From Chindara's'' warbling fount I come. 

Called by that moonlight garland's spell ; 
From Chindara's fount, my fairy home. 

Where in music, morn and night, I dwell. 
Where lutes in the air are heard about. 

And voices are singing the whole day long. 
And every sigh the heart breathes out 

Is turned, as it leaves the lips, to song ! 
Hither I come 
From my fairy home. 

And if there's a magic in Music's strain, 



* "This idea (of deities living in shells) was not unknown to the Greeks, 
who represent the young Nerites, one of the Cupids, as living in shells on the 
shores of the Red Sea." — WUforch 

^ "A fabulous fountain, where instruments are said to be constantly play- 
ing." — Richardson. 



320 L A L L A R O O K H. 

I swear by the breath 
Of that moonlight wreath, 
Thy Lover shall sigh at thy feet again. 



For mine is the lay that lightly floats, 
And mine are the murmuring, dying notes. 
That fall as soft as snow on the sea. 
And melt in the heart as instantly : — 
And the passionate strain that, deeply going. 

Refines the bosom it trembles through, 
As the musk-wind, over the water blowing, 

Ruffles the wave, but sweetens it too. 



Mine is the charm, whose mystic sway 

The Spirits of past Delight obey ; — 

Let but the tuneful talisman sound. 

And they come, like Genii, hovering round. 

And mine is the gentle song that bears, 

From soul to soul, the wishes of love. 
As a bird, that wafts through genial airs 

The cinnamon-seed from grove to grove.* 



» « The Pompadour pigeon is the species, which, by carrying the fruit of the 
cinnamon to different places, is a great disseminator of this valuable tree." — See 
Brown's Illustr. Tab. 19. 



THE LIGHT OF THE HARAM. 321 

'Tis I that mingle in one sweet measure 

The past, the present, and future of pleasure ; * 

When Memory links the tone that is gone 

With the blissful tone that's still in the ear ; 
And Hope from a heavenly note flies on 

To a note more heavenly still that is near. 

The warrior's heart, when touched by me, 

Can as downy soft and as yielding be 

As his own white plume, that high amid death 

Through the field has shone — yet moves with a 

breath ! 
And 0, how the eyes of Beauty glisten, 

When music has reached her inw^ard soul, 
Like the silent stars, that wink and listen 

While Heaven's eternal melodies roll ! 



^ « Whenever our pleasure arises from a succession of sounds, it is a per- 
ception of a complicated nature, made up of a sensation of the present sounds 
or note, and an idea or remembrance of the foregoing, while their mixture and 
concurrence produce such a mysterious delight, as neither could have produced 
alone. And it is often heightened by an anticipation of the succeeding notes. 
Thus Sense, Memory, and Imagination, are conjunctively employed." — Gerrard 
on Taste. / 

This is exactly the Epicurean theory of Pleasure, as explained by Cicero : 
— « Quocirca corpus gaudere tamdiu, dum priEsentem sentiret voluptatem : ani- 
mum et prsesentem percipere pariter cum corpore et prospicere venientem, nee 
prseteritam prseterfluere sinere." 

Madame de Stael accounts upon the same principle for the gratification we 
derive from rhyme: — "Elle est Fimage de I'esperance et du souvenir. Un son 
nous fait desirer celui qui doit lui repondre, et quand le second retentit il nous 
rappelle celui qui vient de nous echapper." 



322 LALLA ROOKH. 

So, hither I come 

From my fairy home, 
And if there's a magic in Music's strain, 

I swear by the breath 

Of that moonlight wreath. 
Thy Lover shall sigh at thy feet again. 



'Tis dawn — at least that earlier dawn. 
Whose glimpses are again withdrawn,'' 
As if the morn had waked, and then 
Shut close her lids of light again. 
And NouRMAHAL is up, and trying 

The wonders of her lute, whose strings- 
O bliss ! — now murmur like the sighing 

From that ambrosial Spirit's wings. 



" " The Persians have two mornings, the Soobhi Kazim and the Soobhi 
Sadig, the false and the real daybreak. They account for this phenomenon in 
a most whimsical manner. They say that as the sun rises from behind the 
Kohi Qaf, (Mount Caucasus,) it passes a hole perforated through that moun- 
tain, and that darting its rays through it, it is the cause of the Soobhi Kazim, or 
tliis temporary appearance of daybreak. As it ascends, the earth is again veiled 
in darkness, until the sun rises above the mountain, and brings with it the 
Soobhi Sadig, or real morning." — Scott Waring, He thinks Milton may allude 
to this, when he says, — 

"Ere the blabbing Eastern scout. 

The nice mom on the Indian steep 

From her cabined loop-hole peep." 



THE LIGHT OF THE HARAM. '3'^3 

And then, her voice — 'tis more than human — 

Never, tUl now, had it been given 
To lips of any mortal woman 

To utter notes so fresh from heaven ; 
Sweet as the breath of angel sighs. 

When angel sighs are most divine. — 
" ! let it last till night," she cries, 

"And he is more than ever mine." 
And hourly she renews the lay. 

So fearful lest its heavenly sweetness 
Should, ere the evening, fade away, — 

For things so heavenly have such fleetness ! 
But, far from fading, it but grows 
Richer, diviner as it flows : 
Till rapt she dwells on every string. 

And pours again each sound along. 
Like Echo, lost and languishing, 

In love with her own wondrous song. 

That evening, (trusting that his soul 
Might be from haunting love released 

By mirth, by music, and the bowl,) 
Th' Imperial Selim held a feast 

In his magnificent Shalimar ; " — 

In whose saloons, when the first star 

a « In the centre of the plain, as it approaches the Lake, one of the Delhi 
Emperors, I beheve Shah Jehan, constructed a spacious garden called the Shali- 



324 LALLA ROOHH. 

Of evening o'er the waters trembled, 
The Valley's loveliest all assembled ; 
All the bright creatures that, like dreams, 
Glide through its foliage, and drink beams 
Of beauty from its founts and streams ; ^ 
And all those wandering minstrel-maids, 
Who leave — how can they leave ? — the shades 
Of that dear Valley, and are found 

Singing in gardens of the South ^ 
Those songs, that ne'er so sweetly sound 

As from a young Cashmerian's mouth. 



mar, which is abundantly stored with fruit-trees and flowering shrubs. Some 
of the rivulets which intersect the plain are led into a canal at the back of the 
garden, and flowing through its centre, or occasionally thrown into a variety 
of water-works, compose the chief beauty of the Shahmar. To decorate this 
spot the Mogul Princes of India have displayed an equal magnificence and 
taste ; especially Jehan Gheer, who, with the enchanting Noor Mahl, made 
Kashmire his usual residence during the summer months. On arches thrown 
over the canal are erected, at equal distances, four or five suites of apartments, 
each consisting of a saloon, with four rooms at the angles, where the followers 
of the court attend, and the servants prepare sherbets, cofiee, and the hookah. 
The frame of the doors of the principal saloon is composed of pieces of a stone 
of a black colour, streaked with yellow lines, and of a closer grain and 
higher polish than porphyry. They were taken, it is said, from a Hindoo 
temple, by one of the Mogul princes, and are esteemed of great value." — 
Forster. 

a « The waters of Cachemir are the more renowned from its being supposed 
that the Cachemirians are indebted for their beauty to them." — Mi Yezdi. 

^ " From him I received the following little Gazzel, or Love Song, the notes 
of which he committed to paper from the voice of one of those singing girls of 
Cashmere, who wander from that delightful valley over the various parts 
of India." — Persian Miscellanies. 



THE LIGHT OF THE HARAM. 535 

There, too, the Haram's inmates smile ; — 

Maids from the West, with sunbright hair, 
And from the garden of the Nile, 

DeHcate as the roses there ; ^ — 
Daughters of Love from Cyprus' rocks. 
With Paphian diamonds in their locks ; ^ — 
Light Peri forms, such as there are 
On the gold meads of Candahar ; ' 
-And they, before whose sleepy eyes. 

In their own bright Kathaian bowers. 
Sparkle such rainbow butterflies, 

That they might fancy the rich flowers. 
That round them in the sun lay sighing. 
Had been by magic all set flpng.^ 

Every thing young, every thing fair 
From East and West is blushinsf there. 



a « The roses of the Jinan Nile, or Garden of the Nile, (attached to the 
Emperor of Marocco's palace,) are unequalled, and mattresses are made of their 
leaves for the men of rank to recline upon." — Jackson. 

^ " On the side of a mountain near Paphos there is a cavern which produces 
the most beautiful rock-crystal. On account of its brilUancy it has been called 
the Paphian diamond." — Mariti. 

c "There is a part of Candahar, called Peria, or Fairy Land." — Thevenot. 
In some of those countries to the north of Lidia, vegetable gold is supposed to 
be produced. 

d « These are the butterflies which are called in the Chuiese language Flying 
Leaves. Some of them have such shining colours, and are so variegated, that 
they may be called flying flowers ; and indeed they are always produced in the 
finest flower-gardens." — Dunn. 

2E 



326 LALLAROOKH. 

Except — except — 0, Nourmahal ! 
Thou loveliest, dearest of them all, 
The one, whose smile shone out alone, 
Amidst a world the only one ; 
Whose light, among so many lights. 
Was like that star, on starry nights. 
The seaman singles from the sky, 
' To steer his bark for ever by ! 
Thou wert not there — so Selim thought. 

And every thing seemed drear without thee ; 
But, ah ! thou wert, thou wert, and brought 

Thy charm of song all fresh about thee. 
Mingling unnoticed with a band 
Of lutanists from many a land. 
And veiled by such a mask as shades 
The features of young Arab maids,^ — 
A mask that leaves but one eye free. 
To do its best in witchery, — 
She roved, with beating heart, around. 

And waited, trembling, for the minute, 
When she might try if still the sound 

Of her loved lute had magic in it. 

The board was spread with fruits and wine , 
With grapes of gold, like those that shine 

n « The Arabian women wear black masks with Uttle clasps prettily ordered." 
-Carreri. Nicbuhr mentions their showing but one eye in conversation. 



THE LIGHT OF THE HARAM. 327 

On Casein's hills ; * — pomegranates full 

Of melting sweetness, and the pears, 
And sunniest apples,'' that Caubul, 

In all its thousand gardens," bears : — 
Plantains, the golden and the green, 
Malaya's nectared mangusteen ; ^ 
Prunes of Bokara, and sweet nuts 

From the far groves of Samarcand, 
And Basra dates, and apricots. 

Seed of the Sun,^ from Iran's land ; 
With rich conserve of Visna cherries,' 
Of orange flowers, and of those berries 
That, wild and fresh, the young gazelles 
Feed on in Erac's rocky dells.* 
All these in richest vases smile. 

In baskets of pure santal-wood, 



a « The golden grapes of Casbin." — Description of Persia. 

^ « The fruits exported from Caubul are apples, pears, pomegranates," &c. — 
Elphinstone. 

c « We sat down under a tree, listened to the bu-ds, and talked with the son 
of our Mehmaundar about our country and Caubul, of which he gave an 
enchanting account; that city and its hundred thousand gardens," &c.— M 

d « The mangusteen, the most deUcate fruit in the world ; the pride of the 
Malay islands," — Marsdcn. 

e « A delicious kind of apricot, called by the Persians tokm-ek-shems, signify- 
ing sun's seed." — Description of Persia. 

^ " Sweetmeats, in a crystal cup, consisting of rose-leaves in conserve, with 
lemon of Visna cherry, orange flowers," &c. — Russell. 

s « Antelopes cropping the fresh berries of Erac." — The Moallakat, Poem 
of Tarafa. 



338 LALLA ROOKH. 

And urns of porcelain from that isle/ 
Sunk underneath the Indian flood, 
Whence oft the lucky diver brings 
Vases to grace the halls of kings. 
Wines, too, of every clime and hue, 
Around their liquid lustre threw ; — 
Amber RosoUi," — the bright dew 
From vineyards of the Green-Sea gushing,' 
And Shiraz wine, that richly ran 

As if that jewel, large and rare. 
The ruby for which Kublai-Khan 
Offered a city's wealth,** was blushing 
Melted within the goblets there ! 

And amply Selim quaffs of each. 

And seems resolved the flood shall reach 

His inward heart, — shedding around 

A genial deluge, as they run. 
That soon shall leave no spot undrowned, 

For Love to rest his wings upon. 



^ Mauri-ga-Sima, an island near Formosa, supposed to have been sunk in 
the sea for the crimes of its inhabitants. The vessels which the fishermen and 
divers bring up from it are sold at an immense price in China and Japan. — 
See Kempfcr. 

^ Persian Tales. 

<= The white wine of Kishma. 

^ " The King of Zeilan is said to have the very finest ruby that was ever 
seen. Kublai-Khan sent and offered the value of a city for it, but the King 
answered he would not give it for the treasure of the world." — Murco Polo. 



THE LIGHT OF THE HARAM. 329 

He little knew how well the boy 

Can float upon the goblet's streams, 
Lighting them with his smile of joy ; — 

As bards have seen him in their dreams, 
Down the blue Ganges laughing glide 

Upon a rosy lotus wreath,* 
Catching new lustre from the tide 

That with his image shone beneath. 



But what are cups, without the aid 

Of song to speed them as they flow ? 
And see — a lovely Georgian maid. 

With all the bloom, the freshened glow 
Of her own country maidens' looks, 
When warm they rise from Teflis' brooks,*- 
And with an eye, whose restless ray. 

Full, floating, dark — 0, he, who knows 
His heart is weak, of Heaven should pray 

To guard him from such eyes as those ! — 
With a voluptuous wildness flings 
Her snowy hand across the strings 
Of a syrinda," and thus sings : — 



a The Indians feign that Cupid was first seen floating down the Ganges on 
the Nymphaea Nelumbo. — See Pcn7iaiit. 

^ Teflis is celebrated for its natural warm baths. — See Ebn Haukal. 
" « The Indian Syrinda, or guitar." — Symez. 

2e2 



330 LALLA ROOKH. 

Come hither, come hither ; by night and by day, 
We hnger in pleasures that never are gone ; 

Like the waves of the summer, as one dies away, 
Another as sweet and as shining comes on. 

And the love that is o'er, in expiring, gives birth 
To a new one as warm, as unequalled in bliss ; 

And, 0, if there be an Elysium on earth, 
It is this, it is this.* 

Here maidens are sighing, and fragrant their sigh 
As the flower of the Amra just oped by a bee;'' 

And precious their tears as that rain from the sky,° 
Which turns into pearls as it falls in the sea. 

! think what the kiss and the smile must be worth 
When the sigh and the tear are so perfect in bliss. 

And own, if there be an Elysium on earth. 
It is this, it is this. 

Here sparkles the nectar, that, hallowed by love. 

Could draw down those angels of old from their sphere, 



a « Around the exterior of the Dewan Khafs (a building of Shah Allum's) 
in the cornice are the following lines, in letters of gold upon a ground of 
white marble — < If there be a paradise upon earth, it is this, it is this.' " — 
Franklin. 

b « Delightful are the flowers of the Amra trees on the mountain tops, 
wliile the murmuring bees pursue their voluptuous toil." — Song of Jayadeva. 

c " The Nisan, or drops of spring rain, which they believe to produce pearls 
if they fall into shells." — Rirhardson. 



w\ 



THE LIGHT OF THE HARAM. 331 

Who for wine of this earth ^ left the fountains above, 
And forgot heaven's stars for the eyes we have here. 

And, blessed with the odour our goblet gives forth, 
What Spirit the sweets of his Eden would miss ? 

For, ! if there be an Elysium on earth, 
It is this, it is this. 



The Georgian's song was scarcely mute. 

When the same measure, sound for sound. 
Was caught up by another lute. 

And so divinely breathed around, 
That all stood hushed and wondering, 

And turned and looked into the air. 
As if they thought to see the wing 

Of IsRAFiL,'' the Angel, there ; — 
So powerfully on every soul 
That new, enchanted measure stole. 
While now a voice, sweet as the note 
Of the charmed lute, was heard to float 
Along its chords, and so entwine 

Its sounds with theirs, that none knew whether 
The voice or lute was most divine. 

So wondrously they went together : — 



a For an account of the share which wine had in the fall of the angels, see Mariti. 
b The Angel of Music. See note, p. 274. 



332 LALLA ROOKH. 

There's a bliss beyond all that the minstrel has told, 
When two, that are linked in one heavenly tie, 

With heart never changing, and brow never cold. 
Love on through all ills, and love on till they die ! 

One hour of a passion so sacred is worth 

Whole ages of heartless and wandering bliss ; 

And, ! if there be an Elysium on earth. 
It is this, it is this. 



'Twas not the air, 'twas not the words. 
But that deep magic in the chords 
And in the lips, that gave such power 
As Music knew not till that hour. 
At once a hundred voices said, 
" It is the masked Arabian maid !" 
While Selim, who had felt the strain 
Deepest of any, and had lain 
Some minutes rapt, as in a trance. 

After the fairy sounds were o'er. 
Too inly touched for utterance, 

Now motioned with his hand for more 



Fly to the desert, fly w^ith me : 
Our Arab tents are rude for thee ; 



THE LIGHT OF THE HARAM. 333 

But, ! the choice what heart can doubt, 
Of tents with love, or thrones without ? 

Our rocks are rough, but smihng there 
Th' acacia waves her yellow hair, 
Lonely and sweet, nor loved the less 
For flowering in a wilderness. 

Our sands are bare, but down their slope 
The silvery-footed antelope 
As gracefully and gayly springs 
As o'er the marble courts of kings. 

Then come — thy Arab maid will be 
The loved and lone acacia-tree. 
The antelope, whose feet shall bless 
With their light sound thy loneliness. 

! there are looks and tones that dart 
An instant sunshine through the heart, — 
As if the soul that minute caught 
Some treasure it through life had sought • — 

As if the very lips and eyes. 
Predestined to have all our sio-hs. 
And never be forgot again, 
Sparkled and spoke before us then! 



334 LALLA EOOKH. 

So came thy every glance and tone, 
When first on me they breathed and shone ; 
New, as if brought from other spheres, 
Yet welcome as if loved for years. 

Then fly with me, — if thou hast known 
No other flame, nor falsely thrown 
A gem away, that thou hadst sworn 
Should ever in thy heart be worn. 

Come, if the love thou hast for me 
Is pure and fresh as mine for thee, — 
Fresh as the fountain under ground, 
When first 'tis by the lapwing found.* 

But if for me thou dost forsake 
Some other maid, and rudely break 
Her worshipped image from its base, 
To give to me the ruined place ; — 

Then, fare thee well — I'd rather make 
My bower upon some icy lake 
When thawing suns begin to shine. 
Than trust to love so false as thine ! 



a The Hudhud, or Lapwing, is supposed to have the power of discovering 
water under ground. 



THE LIGHT OF THE HARAM. 335 

There was a pathos in this lay, 

That, ev'n without enchantment's art, 
Would instantly have found its way 

Deep into Selim's burning heart ; 
But, breathing, as it did, a tone 
To earthly lutes and lips unknown ; 
With every chord fresh from the touch 
Of Music's Spirit, — 'twas too much ! 
Starting, he dashed away the cup, — 

Which, all the time of this sweet air, 
His hand had held, untasted, up. 

As if 'twere fixed by magic there, — 
And naming her, so long unnamed, 
So long unseen, wildly exclaimed, 

« NOURMAHAL ! NoURMAHAL ! 

« Hadst thou but sung this witching strain, 
" I could forget — forgive thee all, 
"And never leave those eyes again." 

The mask is off — the charm is wrought — 
And Selim to his heart has caught, 
In blushes more than ever bright. 
His NouRMAHAL, his Haram's Light ! 
And well do vanished frowns enhance 
The charm of every brightened glance ; 
And dearer seems each dawning smile 
For having lost its light awhile : 



336 1. A L L A K O K II. 

And, happier now for all her sighs, 
As on his arm her head reposes, 

She whispers him, with laughing eyes, 
"Remember, love, the Feast of Roses'" 



L A L L A R O O K H. S37 



Fadladeen, at the conclusion of this light rhapsody, took 
occasion to sum up his opinion of the young Cashmerian's 
poetry, — of which, he trusted, they had that evening heard 
the last. Having recapitulated the epithets '' frivolous" — 
"inharmonious" — "nonsensical," he proceeded to say that, 
viewing it in the most favourable light, it resembled one 
of those Maldivian boats, to which the Princess had alluded 
in the relation of her dream,^ — a slight, gilded thing, sent 
adrift without rudder or ballast, and with nothing but vapid 
sweets and faded flowers on board. The profusion, indeed, 
of flowers and birds, which this Poet had ready on all 
occasions, — not to mention dews, gems, &c., — was a most 
oppressive kind of opulence to his hearers; and had the 
unlucky effect of giving to his style all the glitter of the 
flower-garden without its method, and all the flutter of the 
aviary without its song. In addition to this, he chose his 
subjects badly, and was always most inspired by the worst 
parts of them. The charms of paganism, the merits of rebel- 
lion, — these were the themes honoured with his particular 
enthusiasm ; and, in the poem just recited, one of his most 
palatable passages was in praise of that beverage of the 



•■ See p. 235. 
2F 



-339 LALLA ROOKH. 



Unfaitliful, wine ; — " being, perhaps," said he, relaxing into 
a smile, as conscious of his own character in the Haram on 
this point, " one of those bards, whose fancy owes all its 
illumination to the grape, like that painted porcelain,^ so 
curious and so rare, whose images are only visible when 
liquor is poured into it." Upon the whole, it was his 
opinion, from the specimens which they had heard, and 
which, he begged to say, were the most tiresome part of the 
journey, that — whatever other merits this well-dressed young 
gentleman might possess — poetry was by no means his proper 
avocation: "and indeed," concluded the critic, <'from his 
fondness for flowers and for birds, I would venture to suggest 
that a florist or a bird-catcher is a much more suitable calling 
for him than a poet." 

They had now begun to ascend those barren moun- 
tains which separates Cashmere from the rest of India; 
and as the heats were intolerable, and the time of their 
encampments limited to the few hours necessary for 
refreshment and repose, there was an end to all their 
delightful evenings, and Lalla Rookh saw no more of 



a « The Chinese had formerly the art of painting on the sides of porcelain 
vessels fish and other animals, which were only perceptible when the vessel was 
full of some liquor. They call this species Kia-tsin, that is, azure is put in press, 
on account of the manner in which the azure is laid on." — " They are every 
now and then trying to recover the art of this magical painting, but to no pur- 
pose." — Dunn. 



LALLA ROOTCH. 839 

Feramorz. She now felt that her short dream of happi- 
ness was over, and that she had nothing but the recol- 
lection of its few blissful hours, like the one draught of 
sweet water that serves the camel across the wilderness, 
to be her heart's refreshment during the dreary waste of 
life that Avas before her. The blight that had fallen upon 
her spirits soon found its way to her cheek, and her ladies 
saw with regret — though not without some suspicion of 
the cause — that the beauty of their mistress, of which 
they were almost as proud as of their own, was fast 
vanishing away at the very moment of all when she had 
most need of it. What must the King of Bucharia feel, 
when, instead of the lively and beautiful Lalla Rookh, 
whom the poets of Delhi had described as more perfect 
than the divinest images in the house of Azor,^ he should 
receive a pale and inanimate victim, upon whose cheek 
neither health nor pleasure bloomed, and from whose eyes 
Love had fled, — to hide himself in her heart? 

If any thing could have charmed away the melan- 
choly of her spirits, it would have been the fresh airs and 
enchanting scenery of that Valley, which the Persians so 
justly called the Unequalled.^ But neither the coolness of 



a An eminent carver of idols, said in the Koran to be father to Abraham. 
"I have such a lovely idol as is not to be met with in the house of Azor."— 
Hajiz. 

* Kachmire be Nazeer. — Forsfer. 



340 LALLA ROOKH. 

its atmosphere, so luxurious after toiling up those bare and 
burning mountains, — neither the splendour of the minarets 
and pagodas, that shone out from the depth of its woods, 
nor the grottoes, hermitages, and miraculous fountains,* 
which make every spot of that region holy ground, — 
neither the countless waterfalls, that rush into the Valley 
from all those high and romantic mountains that encircle 
it, nor the fair city on the Lake, whose houses, roofed 
with flowers,'' appeared at a distance like one vast and 
variegated parterre : — not all these wonders and glories 
of the most lovely country under the sun could steal her 
heart for a minute from those sad thoughts, which but 
darkened and grew bitterer every step she advanced. 

^ "The pardonable superstition of the sequestered inhabitants has multi- 
plied the places of worship of Mahadeo, of Beschan, and of Brama. All Cash- 
mere is holy land, and miraculous fountains abound." — Major Eenncl's Memoirs 
of a Map of Hindostan. 

Jehanguire mentions "a fountain in Cashmere called Tirnagh, which signi- 
fies a snake ; probably because some large snake had formerly been seen there." 
— "During the lifetime of my father, I went twice to this fountain, which is 
about twenty cess from the city of Cashmere. The vestiges of places of wor- 
ship and sanctity are to be traced without number amongst the ruins and the 
caves, which are interspersed in its neighbourhood." — Toozek Jehangery — v. 
Asiat. Misc. vol. ii. 

There is another account of Cashmere, by Abul-Fazil, the author of the 
Ayin-Acbaree, "who," says Major Rennel, " appears to have caught some of the 
enthusiasm of the valley, by his description of the holy places in it." 

b « On a standing roof of wood is laid a covering of fine earth," which 
shelters the building from the great quantity of snow that falls in the winter 
season. This fence communicates an equal warmth in winter, as a refi-eshing 
coolness in the summer season, when the tops of the houses, which are planted 
with a variety of flowers, exhibit at a distance the spacious view of a beautifully 
checkered parterre." — Forster, 



L A L L A K O O K H. 341 

The gay pomps and processions that met her upon 
her entrance hito the Valley, and the magnificence with 
which the roads all along were decorated, did honour to 
the taste and gallantry of the young King. It was night 
when they approached the city, and, for the last two 
miles, they had passed under arches, thrown from hedge 
to hedge, festooned vnth. only those rarest roses from 
which the Attar Gul, more precious than gold, is distilled, 
and illuminated in rich and fanciful forms with lanterns of 
the triple-coloured tortoise-shell of Pegu.'^ Sometimes, 
from a dark wood by the side of the road, a display of 
fireworks would break out, so sudden and so brilliant, that 
a Brahmin might fancy he beheld that grove, in whose 
purple shade the God of Battles was born, bursting into a 
flame at the moment of his birth; — while, at other times, 
a quick and playful irradiation continued to brighten all 
the fields and gardens by which they passed, forming a 
line of dancing lights along the horizon ; like the meteors 
of the north as they are seen by those hunters, '^ who 
pursue the white and blue foxes on the confines of the 
Icy Sea. 

These arches and fireworks delighted the Ladies of 

" "Two hundred slaves there are, who have no other office than to hunt the 
woods and marshes for triple-coloured tortoises for the King's Vivary. Of the 
shells of these also lanterns are made." — Vincent le Blanc's Travels. 

b.For a description of the Aurora Borealis as it appears to these hunters, v. 
Encychpcrdia. 

2 P 2 



342 L A L L A ROOK H. 

the Princess exceedingly; and, with their usual good 
logic, they deduced from his taste for illuminations, that 
the King of Bucharia would make the most exemplary 
husband imaginable. Nor, indeed, could Lalla Rookh 
herself help feeling the kindness and splendour with which 
the young bridegroom welcomed her; — but she also felt 
how painful is the gratitude, which kindness from those 
we cannot love excites; and that their best blandishments 
come over the heart with all that chilling and deadly 
sweetness, which we can fancy in the cold, odoriferous 
wind*" that is to blow over this earth in the last days. 

The marriage was fixed for the morning after her 
arrival, when she was, for the first time, to be presented 
to the monarch in that Imperial Palace beyond the lake, 
called the Shalimar. Though never before had a night 
of more wakeful and anxious thought been passed in the 
Happy Valley, yet, when she rose in the morning, and her 
Ladies came around her, to assist in the adjustment of the 
bridal ornaments, they thought they had never seen her 
look half so beautiful. What she had lost of the bloom 
and radiancy of her charms was more than made up by 



a This wind, which is to blow from Syria Damascena, is, according to the 
Mahometans, one of the signs of the Last Daj''s approach. 

Another of the signs is, "Great distress in the world, so that a man when 
he passes by another's grave shall say. Would to God I were in his place!" — 
Sales Preliminarj' Discourse. 



L A L L A K O O K H. :343 

that intellectual expression, that soul beaming forth from 
the eyes, which is worth all the rest of loveliness. When 
they had tinged her fingers with the Henna leaf, and 
placed upon her brow a small coronet of jewels, of the 
shape worn by the ancient Queens of Bucharia, they flung 
over her head the rose-coloured bridal veil, and she pro- 
ceeded to the barge that was to convey her across the 
lake ; — first kissing, with a mournful look, the little amulet 
of cornelian, which her father at parting had hung about 
her neck. 

The morning was as fresh and fair as the maid on 
whose nuptials it rose, and the shining lake, all covered 
with boats, the minstrels playing upon the shores of the 
islands, and the crowded summer-houses on the green 
hills around, with shawls and banners waving from their 
roofs, presented such a picture of animated rejoicing, as 
only she, who was the object of it all, did not feel with 
transport. To Lalla Rookh alone it was a melancholy 
pageant; nor could she have even borne to look upon the, 
scene, were it not for a hope that, among the crowds 
around, she might once more perhaps catch a glimpse of 
Feramorz. So much was her imagination haunted by 
this thought, that there was scarcely an islet or boat she 
passed on the way, at which her heart did not flutter with 
the momentary fancy that he was there. Happy, in her 
eyes, the humblest slave upon whom the light of his dear 



344 L A L L A R O K H. 



looks fell! — In the barge immediately after the Princess 
sat Fadladeen, with his silken curtains thrown widely 
apart, that all might have the benefit of his august pre- 
sence, and with his head full of the speech he was to 
deliver to the King, "concerning Feramorz, and litera- 
ture, and the Chabuk, as connected therewith." 

They now had entered the canal which leads from the 
Lake to the splendid domes and saloons of the Shalimar, 
and went gliding on through the gardens that ascended 
from each bank, full of flowering shrubs that made the 
air all perfume ; while from the middle of the canal rose 
jets of water, smooth and unbroken, to such a dazzling 
height, that they stood like tall pillars of diamond in 
the sunshine. After sailing under the arches of various 
saloons, they at length arrived at the last and most mag- 
nificent, where the monarch awaited the coming of his 
bride ; and such was the agitation of her heart and frame, 
that it was with difficulty she could walk up the marble 
steps, which were covered with cloth of gold for her 
ascent from the barge. At the end of the hall stood two 
thrones, as precious as the Cerulean Thrones of Cool- 
burga,* on one of which sat Aliris, the youthful King of 



a " On Mahommed Shaw's return to Koolburga, (the capital of Dekkan,) 
he made a great festival, and mounted this throne with much pomp and mag- 
nificence, calling it Firozeh or Cerulean. I have heard some old persons, who 
saw the throne Firozeh in the reign of Sultan Mamood Bhamenee, describe 



LALLA ROOKH. 345 

Bucharia, and on the other was, in a few minutes, to be 
placed the most beautiful Princess in the world. Imme- 
diately upon the entrance of Lalla Rookh into the saloon, 
the monarch descended from his throne to meet her; but 
scarcely had he time to talce her hand in his, when she 
screamed with surprise, and fainted at his feet. It was 
Feramorz himself that stood before her! — Feramorz was, 
himself, the Sovereign of Bucharia, who in this disguise 
had accompanied his young bride from Delhi, and, having 
won her love as an humble minstrel, now amply deserved 
to enjoy it as a King. 

The consternation of Fadi.adeen at this discovery was, 
for the moment, almost pitiable. But change of opinion is a 
resource too convenient in courts for this, experienced courtier 
not to have learned to avail himself of it. His criticisms 
were all, of course, recanted instantly; he was seized with 
an admiration for the King's verses, as unbounded as, he 
begged him to believe, it was disinterested ; and the follow- 
ing week saw him in possession of an additional place, 

it. They say that it was in length nine feet, and three in breadth ; made of 
ebony, covered with plates of pure gold, and set with precious stones of immense 
value. Every prince of the house of Bhamenee, who possessed this throne, 
made a point of adding to it some rich stones ; so that when, in the reign of 
Sultan Mamood, it was taken to pieces, to remove some of the jewels to be set 
in vases and cups, the jewellers valued it at one corore of oons, (nearly four 
millions sterling.) I learned also that it was called Firozeh from being partly 
enamelled of a sky-blue colour, which was in time totally concealed by the num- 
ber of jewels." — Ferishta. 



346 LALLA ROOKH. 

swearing by all the Saints of -Islam that never had there 
existed so great a poet as the Monarch Aliris, and 
moreover, ready to prescribe his favourite regimen of the 
Chabuk for every man, woman, and child, that dared to think 
otherwise. 

Of the happiness of the King and Queen of Bucharia, 
after such a beginning, there can be but little doubt ; and, 
among the lesser symptoms, it is recorded of Lalla Rookh, 
that, to the day of her death, in memory of their delightful 
journey, she never called the King by any other name than 
Feramorz. 



THE END. 



PUBLICATIONS 

OF 

HENRY CAREY BAIRD, 

SUCCESSOR TO E. h. CARET, 

No. 7 Hart's Buildings, Sixth Street above Chestnut, Philadelphia, 



Scmttifit an^ friittkaL 

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S 



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This important Treatise will be found to coTer the whole field in the most 
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The publisher is not aware that in any other work heretofore issued in this 
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Contents. — Introduction, Dignity of Labour, Tan and Tannin, Gallic Acid, 
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mating the Tanning Power of Asti'ingent Substances, Tan, the Structure and 
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Napier — Manual of Electi^o- Metallurgy : 

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volume, 12mo $1.25 

Napier's Electro-Metallurgy is generally regarded as the very best practical 
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Contents. — History of the Art of Electro-Metallurgy, Description of Galvanic 
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Applications of the Process of Coating with Copper. Bronzing, Decomposition of 
Metals upon one another, Electro-Plating, Electro-Gilding, Results of Experi- 
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Neill — Fruit, Flower, and KitcJie7i Garden. 

By Patrick Neill, LL.D., F.R.S.E., Secretary to the Royal 
Caledonian Horticultural Society. Adapted to the United 
States, from the fourth edition, revised and improved by the 
Author. Illustrated by fifty Wood Engravings of Hot- 
houses, &c. &c. In one volume, 12mo $1.25 

•' This volume supplies a desideratum much felt, and gives within a moderate 
compass all the horticultural information necessary for practical use." — Newark 
Mercury. 

" A valuable addition to the horticulturist's library." — Baltimore Patriot. 



Nicholson — Book-binder^ s ( The Practical) 

Manual : 

Containing Full Directions for all the different Branches of 
Book-binding and Marbling. By James B. Nicholson. 
Illustrated. 12mo. (In press.) 



Norris's Hand-hook for Locomotive En- 
gineers and Machinists : 

Comprising the Calculations for Constructing Locomotives, Man- 
ner of setting Valves, &c. &c. By Septimus Norris, Civil 
and Mechanical Engineer. In one volume, 12mo, with Illus- 
trations $1.50 

" With pleasure do we meet with such a work as Messrs. Norris and Baird 
have given us." — Artisan. 

"In this work he has given lis what are called 'the secrets of the busit»S8.' 
In the rules to construct locomotives, in order that the million should bo learned 
in all things." — Scieniijic American. 

9 



HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S PUBLICATIONS. 

Nystrom — A Treatise on Screiv- Propellers 

and their Steam-E»gincs : 

With Practical Rules and Examples by -whicli to Calculate and 

^ Construct the same for any description of Vessels. By J. 

W. Nystrom. Illustrated by over thirty large Working 

Drawings. In one volume, octavo $3.50 

This is the fullest treatise on the sulject ever published in this country. 

Overman — TJie Manufacture of Iron in 

all its Various Branches: 

To which is added an Essay on the Manufacture of Steel, by 
Frederick Overman, Mining Engineer, with one hundred 
and fifty Wood Engravings. Third edition. In one volume, 
octavo, five hundred pages .$5.00 

" We have now to announce the appearance of another valuable work on the 
subject, which, in our humble opinion, supplies any deficiency which late im- 
provements and discoveries may have caused, from the lapse of time since the 
date of ' Mushet' and ' Sflirivenor.' It is the production of one of our trans- 
atlantic brethren, Mr. B'rederick Overman, Miuing Engineer; and we do not 
hesitate to set it down as a work of great importance to all connected with the 
iron interest; one which, while it is suflnciently technological fully to explain 
chemical analysis, and the various phenomena of iron under different circum- 
stances, to the satisfaction of the most fastidious, is wiitten in that clear and 
comprehensive style as to be available to the capacity of the humblest mind, 
and consequently will be of much advantage to those works where the proprie- 
tors may see the desirability of placing it in the hands of their operatives." — 
London Morning Journal. 

Painter, [The] Gilder, and Varnisher^s 

Companion : 

Containing Rules and Regulations for every thing relating to 
the arts of Painting, Gilding, Varnishing, and Glass-stain- 
ing: numerous useful and valuable Receipts ; Tests for the 
Detection of Adulterations in Oils, Colours, &c. ; and a 
Statement of the Diseases and Accidents to which Painters, 
Gilders, and Varnishers are particularly liable; with the 
simplest methods of Prevention and Remedy. Fifth edition. 
In one volume, small 12mo, cloth 75 cts. 

Paper-Hanger^ s [The] Companion: 

[n which the Practical Operations of the Trade are systematic- 
ally laid down ; with copious Directions Preparatory to 
Papering ; Preventions against the effect of Damp in ^Valls; 
the various Cements and Pastes adapted to the several pur- 
poses of the trade ; Observations and Directions for the 
Panelling and Ornamenting of Rooms, &c. &c. By Ja.mes 

Arrowsmith. In one volume, 12mo 75 cts. 

10 



HENRY CAREY BAIRD'S PUBLICATIONS. 



Perldns— Practical Treatise on Gas and 

Ventilation. 
By E. E. Perkins. 12mo. (In press.) 

Practical Printer, Type Founder, and 

Stereofijjier' s Hand-Booh. 
By D. W. Belisle. Illustrated. 12mo. (In press.) 

Practical (The) Surveyor'' s Gtdde: 

Containing the necessary information to make any person of 
common capacity a finished Land Surveyor, without the 
aid of a teacher. By Andrew Duncan, Land Surveyor 
and Civil Engineer. 12mo 75 cts. 

HaTing had an experience as a practical Surveyor, &c. of thirty years, it is 
belieyed that the author of this volume possesses a thorough knowledge of the 
■wants of the profession ; and never having met with any work sufficiently con- 
cise and instructive in the several details necessary for the proper qualificatiou 
of the Surveyor, it has been his object to supply that want. Among other im- 
portant matters in the hook, will be found the following: 

Instructions in levelling and profiling, with a newand speedy plan of setting 
grades on rail and plank roads ; the method of inflecting curves ; the descrip- 
tion and design of a new instrument, whereby distances are found at once, with- 
out any calculation ; a new method of surveying any tract of land by measur- 
ing one line through it; a geometrical method of correcting surveys taken with 
the compass, to fit them for calculation ; a short method of finding the angles 
from the courses, and vice versa; the method of surveying with the compass 
through any mine or iron works, and to correct the deflections of the needle by- 
attraction; description of an instrument by the help of which any one may 
measure a map by inspection, without calculation ; a new and short method of 
calculation, wherein fewer figures are used; the method of correcting the diur 
nal variation of the needle ; various methods of plotting and embellishing maps ; 
the most correct method of laying ofif plots with the pole, kc. ; description of a 
new compass contrived by the author, &c. <S:c. 

Rail Road Curves, and Location of Rail 

Roads : 

A Practical Treatise. By E. W. Beans, Civil Engineer. 12mo. 
(In press.) 



Rural Chemistry: 



An Elementary Introduction to the Study of the Science, in its 
relation to Agriculture and the Arts of Life. By Edward 
Solly, Professor of Chemistry in the Horticultural Society 
of London. From the third improved London edition, 

12mo $1.25 

11 



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Scott — The Practical Cotton-spinner and 

Manufacturer; or, the Manager and Overlooker's 
Companion : 

This work contains a Comprehensive System of Calculations 
for Mill Gearing and Machinery, from the first moving 
power, through the different processes of Carding, Drawing, 
Slabbing, Roving, Spinning, and Weaving, adapted to 
American Machinery, Practice and Usages. Compendious 
Tables of Yarns and Reeds are added. Illustrated by large 
working-drawings of the most approved American Cotton 

Machinery. Complete in one volume, octavo $3.50 

This edition of Scott's Cotton-Spinner, by Oliver Btrxe, is desiscned for the 
American Operative. It will be found intensely practical, and will be of the 
greatest possible value to the Manager, Overseer, and Workman. 

Shele De Vere — Sketches of Comparative 

Philology. 

By Prof. Shele De Vere, of the University of Virginia, 
author of a "Grammar of the Spanish Language." Com- 
plete in one volume, 12mo $1.25 

Solly — Syllabus of a Complete Course of 

Lectures on Chemistry : 

Including its Application to the Arts, Agriculture, and Mining. 
By Prof. E. Sollt. Revised by the author of " Chemical 
Manipulations." Octavo, cloth $1.25 

Templeton — The Practical Examinator 

on Steam and the Steam, Engine: 

With Instructive References relative thereto, arranged for the 
use of Engineers, Students, and others. By Wm. Temple- 
ton, Engineer. 12mo 75 cts. 

This work was originally written for the author's private use. He was pre- 
vailed upon by various Engineers, who had seen the notes, to consent to its pub- 
lication, from their eager expression of belief that it would be equally useful 
to them as it had been to himsel£ 

Treatise [A) on a Box of Instruments, 

And the Slide Rule, with the Theory of Trigonometry and 
Logarithms, including Practical Geometry, Surveying, 
Measuring of Timber, Cask and Malt Gauging, Heights 
and Distances. By Thomas Kentish. In one volume, 
12mo $1.00 

4 volume of inestimable value to Enjdneers, Gangers, Students, and others. 
12 



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Ttirnhull — A Treatise on Experimental 

Electricity. 
By Lawrence Tuenbull, M.D. 12mo. (In press.) 

Turner'' s Companion: 

Containing Instructions in Concentric, Elliptic, and Eccentric 
Turning. Also, various Plates of Chucks, Tools, and In- 
struments, and Directions for using the Eccentric Cutter, 
Drill, Vertical Cutter, and Circular Rest; with Patterns 
and Instructions for working them. Illustrated with nume- 
rous Engravings. In one volume, 12mo 75 cts. 

A valuable little book, beautifully and completely illustrated. 

Walker — Electrotype Manipulation . 

Being the Theory and Plain Instructions in the Art of Working 
in Metals, by Precipitating them from their Solutions, 
through the agency of Galvanic or Voltaic Electricity ; also 
in the Arts of Electro-Plating, Electro-Gilding, and Elec- 
tro-Etching ; with an Account of the Mode of Depositing 
Metallic Oxides, and of the several applications of Electro- 
type in the Arts. By Charles V. Walker, Hon. Sec. of 
the London Electrical Society, &c. Illustrated. New edi- 
tion, from the Twenty-fifth London edition. 12mo...75 eta. 

The rapid sale in England of twenty-five editions, and the demand in this 
country render necessary no further guarantee of the value of this book. For 
popular use it surpasses all other treatises on the subject 

Walter & Smith — Cottage and Villa Ar- 
chitecture : 

With Ground-plans and Elevations. By Thomas U. Walter, 
Architect of Girard College, and John Jay Smith, Phila- 
delphia Library. In two volumes, quarto $5.00 

Walter & Smithes Guide to Workers in 

Metal and Stone. 

Consisting of Designs and Patterns for Gates, Piers, Balcony 
and Cemetery Railing, Window Guards, Balustrades, Stair- 
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Byron — Poetical Works of Lord Byron: 

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Female Poets of Great Britain: 

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Gray — Poetical Works of Thomas Gray : 

With Illustrations by C. W. Radclyffe. Edited •with a Memoir, 
by Heney Reed, Professor of English Literature in the 
University of Pennsylvania. In one volume, 8vo. 

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Lalla Rookh. 

By Thomas Moore. Illustrated by 13 Plates, from Designs by 
CoRBOULD, Meadows, and Stephanoff. 1 vol. royal 8vo. 



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Poets and Poeti^y of England in the Nine- 
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Poets and Poetry of the Ancients. 

By William Peter, A.M. Comprising Translations and Speci- 
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Atalantis, a Poem. 

By William Gilmoke Simms. 12mo 50 cts. 

Bechford — Vathek, an Arabian Tale. 

By Wm. Beckford. 12mo, cloth 75 cts. 

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Bolinghroke! s [Lord) Works. 

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Brougliam [Lord) — Lives of Men of Letters 

and Science. 
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ByronJs Life^ Letters^ and Journals. 

By Moore. Complete in two volumes, half morocco.... .$3.00 

Children in the Wood. 

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2* v 



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Comic Blackstone, 

By Gilbert Abbot A'Becket. One Yolume, 12mo, cloth.. 75 cts. 

Corinne^ or Italy. 

By Madame de Stael, 12mo, cloth $1.25 

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" A work of singular ingenuity and eloquence, and the best guide, or rather 
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CrancKs Poems. 

One volume, boards 87 cts. 

Feltman — Journal of the Siege of York- 

toum, &c. 
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Floral Offering ; a Token of Friendship, 

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Gems of the British Poets, 

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George St. George Julian, the Prince. 

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Halsteds Life of Richard III. 

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Hazlitt — Life of Napoleon. 

By William Hazlitt. Illustrated by 17 Engravings, 8vo, cloth, 

gilt $2.50 

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18 



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Hazlitt — Lectures on the English Comic 

Writers, and on the English Poets. 
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Hazlitt — Spirit of the Age. 

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Heads of the People, or Portraits of the 

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Holmes Account of New Sweden. 

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Howitt — Book of the Seasons. 

A new and revised edition, 12mo, cloth. (In press.) 

Howitt — Student Life in Germany. 

A new and revised edition, two volumes, 12mo. (In press.) 

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HowitCs Visits to Remarkahle Places. 

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KohVs Travels in Austria, Scotland, Eng- 
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Laing's Notes of a Traveller. 

One volume, Svo, cloth $2.00 

Landor — Imaginary Conversations of Cele- 
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Lanman^s Tour to the River Saguenay. 

16mo, cloth 75 cts. 

Life of Major-General Peter Muhlenberg. 

of the Army of the Revolution. 
By Hon. Henry A. Muhlenberg. 12mo, cloth $1.00 

^ 19 



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Lion- Killer [The) of Algeria. 

By Jules Gerard, Lieutenant of Spahis, Army of France. In 
one volume, 12mo. Illustrated. (In press.) 

"In his own particular department he can only he compared to the Changar- 
niers, the CaTaignacs. the Lamorici^res. the St. Arnauds — the elite of the African 
army in theirs. Still in the prime of life, he is in military ranli only a lieuten- 
ant of Spahis, but as le tueitr de Lions, his reputation has spread all over 
Europe and Africa; the Arabs go in quest of him from the most remote duars, 
or encampments, In order to enlist his services against their most formidable 
enemy. Travellers and romancers have vied witli one another in giving cur- 
rency to his exploits. We are not quite sure if the inimitable Dumas does not 
boast of having shared a cuteUlte de lion with the African chasseur." — Colburn's 
JVew Monthly. 

Memoirs of the Historical Society of Penn- 

sylvania, 1850. 
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Memoirs of Generals, Commodores, and 

other Commanders ivho have received Medals from 
Congress. 
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Michelet — The Women of the French Revo- 
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Translated from the French of J. Michelet, by a Lady of Phi- 
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Modern Chivalry, or Adventures of Cap- 
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North^s Specimens of the British Critics. 

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Our Army at Monterey. 

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Our Army on the Rio Grande. 

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Robinson Crusoe. 

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Cloth, gilt edges $1.00 

Roscoe^s Lorenzo de Medici. 

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20 



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Ryley^ the Itinerant, or^ Memoirs of an 

Actor. 
Two volumes, 12mo. (In press.) 

Sanderson^ s American in Paris. 

Two volumes, 12mo, cloth $1.75 

Scotfs Miscellanies. 

Three volumes, cloth gilt.$3. 50 [ Half morocco, or calf. ....$4.25 

Senter^s Journal of ArnoMs Expedition to 

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Sermon on the Mount. 

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Simms, ( W. G.) — Helen Halsey, 

12mo, cloth. (Nearly ready.) 

Simms, ( W. G.) — Castle Dismal. 

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Sullivan's ( William) Public Characters 

of the American Revolution. 
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Smithes [Sidney) Miscellanies. 

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Smith's [Sidney) Sermons. 

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HENRY CAEEY BAIRD'S PUBLICATIONS. 

Three Hours, or the Vigil of Love. 

By Mrs. Hale. 12mo 75 cts. 

Wood — Personal Recollections of the Stage, 

Embracing notices of Actors, Authors, and Auditors, during a 
period of Forty Years. By William B. Wood, Late Di- 
rector of the Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, and 
Alexandria Theatres. Third Thousand. In one volume, 
12mo. With a Portrait $1.25 

"Take it altogether, its historical accuracy, perfect familiarity with all that 
concerns the stage, with its decided literary merit, and we may safely pronounce 
this the great hook of this theatrical age, the best work that has ever appeared 
on this subject, and one that all will read and be delighted with." — American 
Courier. 

" We have read other theatrical histories and biographies, Gibbers and Eella/- 
my's, in England, and Dunlap's and others, here; but none of them have a ge- 
nial, gentle spirit like this." — North American. 

"Any narrative of his life would be sure to find numerous readers. They 
will not be disappointed in any expectations they may have formed of its merit 
as a dramatic history or literary work." — Evnting Bulldin. 

" The author is now in his seventy-sixth year. In closing his long profes- 
sional career by the preparation of this volume, he has performed an acceptable 
public service, and made a valuable addition to the dramatic history of the 
country." — iV. K Journal. 

" We sincerely congratulate the lovers of the legitimate old-fashioned drama, 
on the rich treat that awaits them in the volume now before us, for which we 
owe our thanks to the enterprising publisher. There is no man better qualified 
than Mr. Wood, to give interest and zest to such a work. 

" We are certain that the most fastidious critic will find as much to admire in 
the style of his narrative, as in the raciness of his anecdote, and the wisdom 
of his reflections." — National Intdligenccr. 

" A most valuable and interesting work." — Saturday Post. 

" A most copious and interesting historical record of his times." — Daily 
News. 

" The debut of Cooper, the peculiar talents of Jefferson or Matthews, the 
success of Cooke, and Kean, and Booth; the sensation produced by the Kem- 
bles, Power, Forrest, and Fanny Elsler — the book before us tells us something 
of them all." — City Mem. 

" It is exceedingly interesting." — Sunday Dispatch. 

" We without hesitation pronounce it the most interesting, entertaining, and 
Instructive book of the kind that has ever come under our notice." — Sunday 
Press. 

" He revives, in his lively and graceful sketches, reminiscences which must 
please every frequenter of the drama in its best days, and brings vividly back 
to mind persons and things grateful to the memory, though time has almost 
obliterated them." — Ledger. 

" Destined, from its piquancy and inexhaustible fund of information, to attain 
a world-wide reputation." — Argus. 

"The work is an epitome of an actor's life — a life indeed, for it identifies the 
author with the drama for fifty years." — Pcnnsylvanian. 



Willis's (iV. P.) Prose Works. 



In one volume, royal 8vo, 800 pages, cloth gilt $3.00 

Oloth extra, gilt edges. ..$3.50 I Half calf antique... 4.50 

Library sheep 8.50 Turk, moroc. sup. extra. ..6.00 

28 



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Walpole — The Castle of Otranto. 

A Gothic Story. By Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford. With 
a Memoir of the Author, by Lokd Dover. In one volume, 
12mo 75 cts. 

It has been thought that a handsome and readable edition of Walpole's re- 
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" The actors in the romance are strikingly drawn, with bold outlines, becom- 
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his pride is quelled and his race extinguished. * * # * 

" The story is happily detailed, its progress is uniform, its events interesting 
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Walter Scott. 

" The first romance in our language." — Lord Byron. 

" One of the most remarkable of his works." — Lord Dover. 

"What I will venture to call a masterpiece. * * « * 

Where a beautiful imagination, supported by strength of judgment, has enabled 
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tragedy." — Dr. Warburton. 

" A series of supernatural appearances put together under the most interest- 
ing form imaginable." — Baron de Grimm. 

" The brilliant success of the new romance soon made the author declare 
himself. — Warburtmi's Memoirs of Walpole. 

WyaWs History of the Kings of France. 

Illustrated by Seventy-two Portraits, 1 vol. 16mo, cloth. ..$1.50 



Bowl of Punch. 

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23 



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Mexico, Before and After the Conquest. ib cts. 
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BOOKS FOE PEESENTS, 

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I. 

THE POETICAL WORKS OF THOMAS GRAY. 

WITH FINELY ENGRAVED ILLUSTRATIONS, FROM DESIGNS BY C. W. RADCLYFPE. 

Omiplete in one volume octavo. 



LONGFELLOW'S POETICAL WORKS. 

WITH ELEVEN SUPERB ENGRAVINGS, FROM ORIGINAL DESIGNS BY HUNTINGTON, 

33s Smtruait %xt\sis, 

And elegantly printed on fine vellum paper. 

NINTH EDITION, IN ONE VOLUME OCTAVO. 

" This is the very I uxnry of literature — Longfellow's charming poems presented 
\n a form of unsurpassed beauty." — Neal's GaztUc. 



WILLIS'S POETICAL WORKS. 

nXUSTKATED FROM ORIGINAL DESIGNS BY E. LEOTZE, AND ELEGANTLY ENGRAVED 

Bb Emtriran Artists. 

TO WHICH ARE ADDED SEVERAL NEW POEMS, 

WriUen expressli, for this volume. 

FIFTH EDITION. 



POETS AND POETRY OF GREAT BRITAIN, 

FROM THE TIME OF CIL^.UCER TO THE BEGINNING OF THE 19TH CENTUBT. 

REVISED BY AN AMERICAN EDITOR. 
In mie volume rami octavo. {In preparation.) 



CHILDE HAROLD. A ROMAUNT. 

3Sn 2/orli Bsron. 

SUPERBLY ILLUSTRATED WITH TWELVE ELEGANT STEEL ENGRAVINGS, 

EXECUTED BY AMERICAN ARTISTS, 

I^cfm designs in Murray's magnificent London edition. 

BEAUTIFULLY PRINTED ON FINE PAPER WITH LARGE TYPE. 



VI. 



TALES AND POEMS. BY LORD BYRON. 

WITH ILLUSTRATIVE ENGRAVINGS ON STEEL, 

In one volume octavo. 



MOORE'S LALLA ROOKH. 

ILLUSTRATED I)T THIRTEEN STEEL ENGRAVINGS. 

beautifully printed on fine wldte paper. 

THIRD EDITIOX, COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME OCTAVO, 

" IIow mueli more impressive must be its perusal from the magnificent volume 
just issued, in 'Annual' style, its snowy leaves printed in the perfection of the 
art, and the matter illustrated by masters of the pencil and graver." — Saturday 



THE LADY OF THE LAKE. 

WITH TEN FINE STEEL ENGRAVINGS, FROM ORIGINAL DESIGNS, 

Expressly for this edition. 

Elegantly pnnted mi fine paper. 

SECOND EDITION, COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME OCTAVO. 

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publisher and t he fine arts of the country. The paper, binding, and the engrav- 
ings are all of the very best kind." — Inquirer and Courier. 



IX. 

THE TASK AND OTHER POEMS. 

332 SSJilliam ©otoptr. 

WITH TEN STEEL ENGRAVINGS BY CHENEY, CUSHMAN, ETC. 

"The illustrations are ten in number, fine, spirited, and tasteful; and the 
wm* would form both an elegant and intrinsically valuable present for the 
coming holidays." — Saturday Courier. 



THE FEMALE POETS OF GREAT BRITAIN, 

CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED. 
WITH COPIOUS SELECTIONS AND CRITICAL REMARKS. 

332 jFrtUtri'-cfe 3£tDh3ton. 

WITH ADDITIONS BY AN AMERICAN EDITOR, AND FINELY ENGRAVED ILLUSIRATI0N8 

BY CELEBRATED ARTISTS. 

In one volume octavo. 

"Mr. Kowton has here presented us with admirably selected specimens of 

nearl,v one hundred of the most celebrated female poets of Great Britain, from 

Die time of U-Ay .luliana Eerncrs. the first of whom there is any record, to the 

Mitfirds, the llowitts. the Cooks, the Barretts, and others of the present day." — 

Hunts' Jilirchants' iLigazine. 



THE FEMALE POETS OF AMERICA. 

33s mufus SMilmot (Kristoolif. 

" T am obnoxious to each carping: tongue 
That pays my hand a neodle better iSts ; 
A poet's pen all scorn I thus should wrong, 
For such despite they cast on female wits. . . . 
But sure the antiiiue Greeks were far more mild, 
Else of our ssx why feigned they those nine, 
Aud poesy made Calliope's own child ? — 
So 'mongst the rest they placed the arts divine." 

The Four Elements. By Anne Bradstreet, Boston, 1640. 

IN ONE TOLUME OCTAVO, WITH FINE STEEL ENGRAVINGS. 

"TVe agree with the author that many of the pieces quoted in the Tolume 
before us ' illustrate as high and sustained a range of poetic art as the female 
genius of any age or country can display.' " — Providence Journal. 

" AVho shall say that American women are lacking in the elements of poetry, 
after the abundant evidence to the contrary, which is afforded in this handsome 
volume from the hands of the best compiler in the country — one, too, whose taste 
in literary matters is as unquestionable as his industry." — Southern Lit. Gazette. 



THE POETS AND POETRY OF ENGLAND. 

Bb 3aufuj5 SSIilmot (KrisJnoIlJ. 

WITH A SPLENDID PORTRAIT OF BYRON IN TEE ALBANIAN COSTnME. 

Third editinn. 

" Such is the critical acumen discovered in these selections, that scarcely a page 
is to be found but is redoleut with beauties, and the volume itself may be re- 
garded as a galaxy of literary pearls. — Democratic Review. 



THE POETS AND POETRY OF THE ANCIENTS. 

332 Slttlliam pttjr, ft-iH. 

COMPRISINQ TRANSLATIONS AND SPECIMENS OF THE 

POETS OF GREECE AND ROME, 

■WITH AN ELEGANT ENGRAVED VIEW OF THE COLISEUM AT EOSTB. 

''It speaks well for his acquirements, industry, and associations; and must 
prove a valuable addition to the literature of the country, as a standard of classic 
taste and poetic excellence." — Saturday Courier. 



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